


The bet

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, Father figure Hidgens in the background, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:22:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21532156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: After an argument at work, Mr Davidson ships the employees involved (and Paul’s plus one) off to some old run down ‘team work improvement’ camp in Clivesdale, Ted makes a bet that Paul and Emma can’t go the weekend without being romantic, Emma bets Ted can’t go the weekend without being an asshole.
Relationships: Emma Perkins & Professor Hidgens, Emma Perkins/ Paul Matthews, implied background Ted/ Charlotte
Comments: 19
Kudos: 59





	1. The bet

**Author's Note:**

> It’ll be a multi chapter fic (probably 2/3 max) because it was a little longer than intended! The next part will be out tomorrow!

The worst possible thing to ever happen happened. 

The overly positive Mr. Davidson caught Ted arguing with Paul and Bill in IT, and decided it wasn’t behaviour that could be tolerated at his ever so highly prestigious CCRP office. Even Charlotte who had minded her own business was grouped in with the bunch for perpetuating the problem, even Melissa, who had simply been passing by the IT room at the time caught a scolding. 

It wasn’t acceptable for his employees to not get along. And so with a weekend of paid leave, he shipped them all off to a team-building exercise camp supposed to help them get along. 

The bright side to this whole nightmare was Emma, of course.

With a little bit of polite begging Mr. Davidson allowed Emma to tag along. 

Two months back she had branded herself as a sort of camping and outdoors expert when Mr Davidson locked his keys in the office and Melissa was home sick. 

It had hit 10:00 and Emma had dropped by with a coffee for Paul, who had been roped in to sticking around to help out his boss.   
“You should’ve called me to come earlier!” She exclaimed, handing her tray over to Paul. “Give me two seconds, I’ll get you inside.” 

The remaining members of the office, but especially Mr Davidson, had watched in awe as she hopped up the fire escape and balanced herself on the bannister. She jumped up to grab the window ledge and in an impressive show of muscle, hauled herself through like it was nothing. 

“What do you think I did in Guatemala for a decade? Sat on my ass?” She answered Paul’s shocked expression when she opened up the door to the office from inside. “A lot of mountain climbing.” 

Up until then, Mr. Davidson only knew to be the only Barista to deliver to this building. 

It tracked that Emma was more thrilled about the camp than Paul. 

“I feel like I’m 10 and I’m being sent to time out for misbehaving in class!” He pouted. “I was never a bad student, Emma! Even when it was too loud or I got a sensory overload, I would just show myself out to settle back down, I wouldn’t even interrupt any other students! Even when I was getting bullied I would still be diplomatic! I don’t deserve spending a weekend with Ted! I am not a trouble child!”

Emma stuck out her tongue, packing her bag eagerly. “Paul, I was a trouble child.”

“Well that’s just something your parents told you,” he had to quickly put in in an attempt to extinguish her nonchalance about the way she was treated growing up. 

“And I would’ve killed to be sent on a free camping trip every time I misbehaved. If I was too loud in class I got called out in front of everyone and sent to the corner for like, an hour,” she nodded like it was a fond memory. “And then I would get home and my dad would-“

“Emma, this is different. This is my boss punishing me because Ted likes to come to my office-“ he paused to tap his hand to his chest. “My! Office! And say stupid things!” 

“God, d’you think if I punch Zoey in the face Nora will send us off to the Hyatt!?” She asked in a far too enthusiastic tone.

“Emma!” He chastised.

“We’d stage it!” She held her hands up in defence like she was any less guilty. “I think we both know how to throw and take a fake punch. We’ll choreograph a whole fight. It’ll be like in West side story.” 

“Haven’t seen it.” 

“Of course you haven’t,” Emma sighed. “Just wait until we get back from camp.”

On the day, Melissa had stopped by their house before work to give a sympathetic frown to see him off.  
“Sorry man, sucks to be you,” she threw Paul a sad peace sign, leaning out her car window. “I mean, I’m clearly missing out on the weekend of a life time but the office would fall apart without me to make photocopies and phone calls for them, obviously.”

“It’s the first couple hours I’m worried about, Mel,” Paul admitted, tossing his bag into the back of his car. “Em isn’t driving up to meet us until after work. It’ll just be me and that gang. They’re lovely, but how am I supposed to spend a whole weekend with them?” He winced. “There’s going to be so much fighting and arguing. I wish you could come too.” 

“Promise me that if a fight breaks out you’ll get in a punch on Ted for me.”  
She shrugged, reaching her arm out to give him a pat on the shoulder.   
“Well whenever you’re struggling just picture me back here, dealing with all these idiots and going to Mr. Davidson’s productivity lectures. He’s actually getting me to write an essay about how important team work is, it’s like I’m 15 again. I’m not going to have anyone to bother at work now!”

“I’ll text you.” He patted his phone in his back pocket. “Emma’s working rush hour so if you don’t text me back I’m going to snap.” 

“No promises, Mr. Davidson is probably going to confiscate my phone if he sees me on it today instead of writing his stupid essay.” She leant back into her car, hands on the wheel to signal she was about to head out. “Hope you make it out alive!” She waves goodbye as she pulled at her handbrake and pressed her foot down on the pedal, driving off to a semi-normal day at work. 

He spent the whole hour long drive dreading it. The so called ‘resort’ wasn’t even in Hatchetfield, it was all the way out in Clivesdale in some absurdly middle of nowhere hillside suburb.

The punctual Bill had arrived first, and was waiting in the parking lot with his bag. He gave a polite smile that didn’t quite hide his bothers or his worries.   
“Ted’s just lucky Alice wasn’t with me this week,” he murmured under his breath as if Ted was nearby. 

“This whole thing is stupid,” Paul groaned. “Plus, by the time we get back to the office it’ll be pre-historic. It’s like no one there knows how to reboot their laptop without sending it down to IT, but we’re all over in Clivesdale for a weekend of...” he looked up at the faded sign on the door to the reception. “‘Fun and bonding’ activities!” He pumped his fist in the air. “Yay!” He rolled his eyes. 

“At least you could get Emma to come with you. That’ll be a saving grace.”  
His co workers liked Emma, and she liked them. 

“I’m just mad at Ted!”

“I don’t even remember what he was trying to argue with us about,” Bill scratched his neck. 

“He said my favourite movie wasn’t as good as the sequel, and that’s just not how it works! Except maybe Back to the future 2, but-!” 

Bill’s eyes rolled to the side to watch Ted’s car pull up over the gravel into the parking lot. “Speak of the devil.” 

Charlotte got out of the passenger seat, a bag clutched nervously to her chest as she scurried across the lot to join her co workers, Ted lagging behind.

“Who’s ready to start this party?” He put on a façade of excitement, the flat expression on his face betraying his tone. 

“Come on,” Paul huffed, grabbing his bag and leading the way to reception. 

The lobby was exactly what he expected.   
Scattered, mismatched chairs up against the walls between dusty, cracked windows. The carpet was an ugly and patchy shade of green, grey and brown all at the same time, decorated with what were hopefully water stains. There were spiders webs on the wall than wallpaper. 

“Mr. Davidson clearly spared no expense with this,” Ted snorted.

Charlotte gave him a warning elbow to lower his tone so close to the receptionist. 

Bill, ever the father of the group, moved ahead to check them in. They received a key for block C and a recycled schedule, and had to trek through the community courtyard and past two other blocks to a backwater looking dorm block. 

“Flashy,” Paul felt his stomach turning.   
He couldn’t stand the outdoors really. He was an indoor man. He would prefer to fall asleep on the couch watching TV after an order-in dinner, and no matter how many trips Emma dragged him on he had never come to like it. 

There were insects everywhere. A squad of ants had already started climbing up his suitcase. There were crickets buzzing in the trees and spiderwebs just about everywhere they could be. 

Charlotte tried to give a comforting smile when she noticed him wincing, and offered to roll in his suitcase for him. 

The lock was rusty, and squealed when Bill inserted the key. He had to give the door a kick before it would open.  
Cold, stale air flowed out into the warmth of the mid-spring twilight. 

“Ugh,” Ted clapped his hands. “This is great, right?” 

“This is your fault, Ted,” Paul wasn’t usually angry or violent but he shouldered past Ted as he entered, desperate to find a spot on his own to calm down. 

Only a couple of hours until Emma was supposed to be here. 

The dorm block had six rooms, three on either side, and a communal living room with a shoddy TV that Paul would be surprised to see work. 

He claimed the room with the least dented door before anyone else could. 

“I hope there’s heating,” Charlotte called out into the dorm block from her chosen room. 

“I’ve got a heater in my room,” Bill reported.

Paul listened to Charlotte hurry back out into the common room to find where Bill’s voice was coming from. “I don’t have one!” She double checked to ensure Bill truly did have a heater before going to check the other rooms. 

Immediately after Charlotte had ducked into another room, Ted’s door slammed shut with a shout. 

“There’s a live, fucking bat in my closet!” He snapped. 

Charlotte’s head peered out of the room at the end of the hall with a frown. “Your room has a closet?” 

Paul shut his bedroom door, sitting down on the foot of his bed cautiously. 

There was tension in his head, and all the shouting and yelling of his coworkers and the bat weren’t helping.   
He hated this place. It was too much, and the noise was too loud.   
Right now, he just needed Emma here to take things into her hands and fix this nightmare situation. 

He pulled his phone from his pocket, hoping Emma might’ve been able to sneak him a text during rush hour, but no news from her yet. 

Melissa, on the other hand was quite chatty. 

‘Just got through my first behaviour lecture of the day from the big man really fun stuff,’ she had said two hours ago. 

‘nvm, I was joking around to lighten the mood and called him by his first name and got another serving :( that hurts, thought we were close’ 

‘I am a woman of many talents, administration reception secretary ((I’m also running tech today bc y’all are gone and I finally feel ur pain. Considering running my own meeting to show these guys where the on/off switch is on their laptops)) so I basically deserve a raise, not this.’ 

‘Mr Davidson rlly hired me as a personal assistant, thought we were friends, u think u know someone huh’ 

‘Especially after all that talk about good bonds with ur co workers :(( guess he’s just too heavenly for us mere humans.’

‘Paul reply to me’

‘Unless ur driving don’t text and drive’

‘How are things up there???’

Paul would kill to just be back at his desk right now. 

‘There’s a bat in Ted’s room’

Dots appeared on his screen almost instantly, followed by the eager reply of 

‘Wait foR REAL!? GHJDHF PAUL OMG CAN U SEND ME A PHOTO’ 

He sighed, laying down where he sat. It was going to be a long wait for Emma to show up. 

“Hey Paul?” Bill knocked gently at his door. “The bat’s gone. Do you want to come look at the schedule with us?” 

He unfurled himself from his ball, creeping up to his door and opening it to ensure there really was no more chaos out there.

“We got the bat out through the smashed window in room 6,” he pointed over his shoulder. 

“What a shame,” Charlotte winced. “It was the only room with both a heater and a closet.” 

“Well I am not staying in that room anymore,” Ted shook his head, marching over to room 2. “Is anyone in here? No? Great.” He rolled his suitcase in before slamming the door to claim it as his own. 

Paul could only whine at this point.   
The walls were almost paper thin, he didn’t want Ted that close to him for the next two days.   
Then he shook his head to himself, pulling at his collar so he could breathe better.   
The schedule didn’t start until tomorrow.   
He still had half of today and the half day that they were leaving on. That was three days if you put it all together. 

“Here’s the schedule from reception.” Bill had it laid out on the table, easing his fingers over the creases and tears. 

“Question,” Ted started.

Three, uncaring heads turned to glare at him. 

“Do we actually have to attend these events?”

“You have to sign off on them, it says. And all that gets sent back to the card paying for the room,” Bill informed him. “Breakfast is at eight-“

“Eight!?” Ted interrupted. “In the morning!? I am not waking up at 7:30. I’m not a god damn high schooler.” 

‘That’s fine, you can sleep through it and meet us for the 3:00 lunch,’ Paul wanted to say, but his head hurt and as angry as he was he didn’t have the nerve.

Just another reason he couldn’t wait for Emma to come to him. She’d put him in his place. 

“Dinner is at 6:00. Tonight it’s soup.”

“Oh, lovely!” Charlotte tried to smile to cheer everyone up. “Will Emma be here by then?” She asked in a not as subtle as she wanted way. 

Things were tense right now, someone had to say what was on their mind and it with the polite bunch of IT workers, nothing was going to get done until Emma arrived. 

“Hopefully,” he tucked his hands into his pockets, rubbing his thumbs over his fingers. He pulled out his phone to check for time and texts. 

‘Paul did the bat kill u’ Melissa had said.

“We have to do at least three of these activities a day, in groups of two or more,” Bill passed the schedule around for everyone else to look at. 

“God I wish I was Melissa right now,” Ted rolled his eyes. “Y’reckon if I ditch these activities I’ll just get off with a slap on the wrist?” He peered over Charlotte’s shoulder to look at the timetable. 

“Rock climbing, basketball, hiking, improv, canoeing?” Charlotte read them aloud for the group. “Raft building,” she shivered. Charlotte was notorious for hating getting wet. “Mud swing,” she continued, pausing briefly to wrap her head around that.

“Mud swing?” Paul echoed. 

“Mud swing,” Ted scoffed with a bit more detest in his voice. “What’s that?”

Bill shook his head and they had all agreed. None of them were going to do the Mud swing, so none of them would find out. 

“Initiative exercises,” she tilted her head. That one was a bit vague too. 

“Ooh, the centipede,” another vague one that Ted pointed out this time. “This camps a load of shit. Who’s funding this?” 

“I don’t think anyone’s funding this,” Charlotte frowned. She was the only one talking with Ted right now. “Mr Davidson probably owns half the estate by sending us here at this point,” she chuckled.

No one laughed with her. 

Paul’s heart was starting to fail him just from listening to the activities. None of them sounded nice, and he was expected to get down six? It would be an impossible weekend. Why couldn’t there be bracelet making or a reflection hour? 

“What’s got you so down, huh? Can’t get to the mud swing any faster?” Ted teased.

“I’m going to go lay down before dinner,” he hung his dizzy head, trudging back to his bedroom. 

“Ted!” He heard Charlotte hiss. “Paul doesn’t want to be here. Don’t make this hard for him!”

“I don’t want to be here either!”

“Well you came into our office,” she huffed. “To argue about God knows what!”

Charlotte was always a bit of a push over, and never one to raise her voice, but she had no problems defending her friend and Ted was someone she could easily make it up to later if she upset him. 

Paul shut his door, choosing his side of the bed but not pulling the covers back. He doubted the sanity of the whole organisation. 

He text Emma a quick message to ask her to bring up sheets and covers when she was on her way.

He was surprised when his phone began to ring, except it wasn’t from Emma. It was Melissa.

“What’s up?”

“CCRP front desk, this is Melissa speaking, how can I help you?”

“You called me,” he told her. “From your iPhone.” 

“Yeah I know, I’m trying to convince Mr. Davidson it’s a business call. I just got my productivity lecture but there’s half an hour before I can go home so I can’t be bothered doing work. What’s up? How’s the bat?” 

“The bat is gone. It flew out through a smashed window. It’s classy here. Hey, won’t he notice you aren’t using the office phone?” He rolled onto his stomach, tucking a pillow under his chest. 

“With a little bit of master trickery I’m holding both the office phone and my phone in my hand. Our boss is a dunce so he can’t tell the difference,” she snickered. “I’m a genius, Paul. I knew Sycamore taught me something.“

“Sycamore taught me my understanding of Heart of Darkness was more important than my mental health in my final year,” he joked. “Yay, colonialism.”

“Yeah, Sycamore supreme race, am I right? Go Timberwolves! By the time I was in my final year the syllabus had changed. We read the Great Gatsby.” 

“Lucky. Heart of Darkness was the worst. It was the book they based Apocalypse Now off, did you know? I hated that book. ‘The horror! The horror!’ Like, that was the only time they used quotation marks in the whole novel, I swear.” 

“Isn’t that Frankenstein?” 

Paul shrugged, vocalising a noise to accompany the gesture. “Maybe?”

“I still have all these Gatsby quotes in my head. That’s why I can’t remember client phone numbers, too busy thinking about the romantic, homosexual subplot.” He couldn’t see her but he knew she would be rolling her eyes, amused. 

“Things suck up here. The activities are designed for kids, I swear,” he begun. “There’s something called the mud swing and-“

“Ooh, jealous,” Melissa chimed in. 

“Ted’s been making me frustrated. It’s like he’s doing it on purpose. Charlotte and Bill are trying their best but the walls are paper thin here and I can’t stand all this chatter.”

“Well you know what, bud? They’re a rotten crowd, you’re worth the whole damn bunch out together,” she told him firmly. 

“Oh, was that the Great Gatsby?” The quote pulled at some distant memory in his head. 

“Yeah. I’m nostalgic now. Have a party for me while you’re there okay? That’d liven things up. Real roaring 20’s type thing. Reenact the Great Gatsby.” 

“Doesn’t someone get shot?” 

“That can be Ted,” she replied with almost no hesitance. “I don’t see a problem.”

He laughed. Melissa was good at cheering him up. “I haven’t read the book in like 15 years but isn’t there a girl who gets hit by a car and dies?” 

Melissa clicked her tongue. “You’re right. That’s still too raw for Emma. Plan cancelled.” 

Paul was about to scold her but he heard the office phone ringing. 

“Sorry Paul, I’ve got a real call coming through. Let’s do a book club sometime, okay? Say hi to the bat for me!” 

He didn’t even have a second to relax once the call was over. Bill knocked at his door and called him out. 

It was dinner time down at the mess hall.

Charlotte tried to keep a conversation going but Paul didn’t want any of his thoughts to be open to Ted, and Bill was silent, so she gave up. 

Paul fell in line with his friend as Ted split up to talk with the only person who would listen to him.   
“This place is the worst,” he told Bill. “I can’t believe Ted got us sent here.” 

“Well it was Mr. Davidson really,” Bill corrected him, not that he was disagreeing. 

The canteen area was basically empty aside from the staff and themselves. There were two other table of guests, but only with three or four people on each.   
But worst of all, Emma still wasn’t here. 

He checked his phone, he hadn’t heard from her all day. 

Paul finished half his lumpy soup before pushing his bowl away and seeing himself away from his coworkers to make the trek back down to their block. 

He was miserable, his mood only enforced by the amount of flies he had to swat away as he walked. 

He pulled up a couch in the common area, turning the only working channel on on the TV. The couch was hard and the seams were ripped, revealing the foam inside.   
If Emma hated it as much as he did, then maybe mutual complaining could lift his spirits. 

And that’s when the phone rang, this time, from Emma. 

“Babe!” She greeted enthusiastically. “We’re nearly there.”

“Has the drive been okay?” He asked, leaning forward in his chair and smacking the TV’s off button. If he was a dog, his tail would have been wagging. 

“Roads were smooth enough. Hidgens drove most of the way but I got in some driving too! Only a little, and then he panicked.” 

There was some grunting of defence from Hidgens in the drivers seat. 

“I wanted to know if I missed dinner,” she asked. “Or if I’ll want to miss it.” 

“You missed it, and that’s good. It was the worst soup I’ve ever eaten in my life!” He complained. 

“We’ll go through McDonald’s then, text me what you want and I’ll sneak some food in for you. This is gonna be fun. Have you seen the activities yet? Are they any good?” 

“Everything is bad. The TV only has one channel and it’s for sports. The activities   
are awful too. But you have to take 3 a day, you have to sign your name and everything.” He wanted to ask if she was sure she still wanted to come, but he didn’t think he would be able to cope without her at this rate. 

Emma seemed to love that aspect. She’d take a shit show over a 5-star hotel any day, it just meant more adventure. “Just do what I used to do. Get your named signed off and then ask to go to the bathroom and don’t come back.” She certainly had it planned out, and it was an idea worth trying. 

“And where did you use that trick if I may ask?” He heard Hidgens ask with a warning tone. 

“Yeah, it’s not like you can do that at work, right?”

“That is an answer I can’t disclose for legal reasons, i.e, the qualified education-giver sitting next to me.” Before Hidgens could tell her off she continued, “in high school! Not college, Hidgens! I was like 15!” 

“How did you walk out of school?” He asked, his school kept a close eye on its small amount of students. Maybe Melissa was onto something about the Sycamore master race. 

“Slid in and out of the window in the staff room. Teacher’s always left it open so they could smoke,” she laughed quite pridefully. 

“You walked out through the staff room!? Where were the teachers?” He doubted the ability of any of the teachers there. He’d have to ask Alice’s girlfriend if that was still true about Hatchetfield high.

“Oh get over it. I’ll see you in twenty, okay babe? I love you!” 

“Drive safely!” He managed to add before Emma hung up. 

“Alright, you can stop worrying now, I’ve arrived!” Ted’s obnoxiously loud voice greeted him as all three of his dorm mates returned to ruin his serenity.   
“Oh! That piece of junk still works?” He threw himself down right next to Paul, throwing his arms up over the couch. 

Paul jumped to his feet, not prepared for his proximity to be breached so fast. 

Paul joined Bill and Charlotte in glaring at Ted from a distance. 

“What? Are you guys really still mad at me?” 

“Yes!” Paul snapped. “It was your stubbornness that got us sent here! And I can’t stand it!” His hands flew to his ears to drown out his own volume as he yelled. “I don’t want to spent my weekend playing basketball and canoeing just because you couldn’t mind your own business!” 

Ted wasn’t as phased by Paul’s shouting as he hoped he would be. He was looking at him generously like he was the one in the wrong and he was letting him off the hook.   
“Well. Point taken, I’ll keep my opinions to myself next time. I’ll make it up to you, wait here.” He held up a finger to tell them to wait.

Charlotte smiled dotingly at him, his past offences forgotten already. 

He brought back a plastic bag from his suitcase, and when he put it down on the table the familiar clink of glasses calmed everyone. “Booze, from yours truly, my friends!” He held out his hands like this had just cleared his slate and he was now an innocent angel. 

It was frightening how fast Charlotte tore into the bag, and Paul was quick to follow.   
It was actually the expensive stuff, he hadn’t cheaped out. Presumably because he didn’t think he had to share. 

Two bottles down between the four of them and a considerably eased mood later, the sound of a car pulling into the parking lot in the ridge below caught all of their attention.

They all rushed over to the window to watch, glad for some entertainment. 

Emma had finally arrived, two paper bags in her arms and her backpack sling over her shoulders. 

She stepped out of Hidgens old car with a ridiculously big smile on her face.

“Did she get bullied in high school at all?” Ted asked when Hidgens got out too to hug her goodbye. 

“Piss off, Ted,” he elbowed him away from the window, watching her all the way as she left the car park and as far as he could before she vanished from his sight. 

The two minutes before she reached their block was excruciating, and when she opened up the door he raced forward to hug her. Already a little bit drunk, he showered her with the affection she so deserved. 

“Hey!” She grinned, palming over a paper bag to him. “Coffee delivery.”

“Really?” Bill turned around quickly, scanning her for the drinks. 

“No!” She laughed. “This is Mcdonald’s. Paul’s dinner. I heard the soup was shit, I wonder if there’s any left?” She marvelled at their dorm rooms. “Melissa told me an exciting story about a bat. I’ve heard of the mysterious mud swing. I want to do everything right now.”

He loved how excited she was, but she probably wouldn’t be as happy when he laid on the news that he didn’t want to do any of that. 

“I’m just really happy you’re here,” he nuzzled his head into her neck to kiss her. 

“Get a room,” Ted called from where he remained seated in the common area. 

“This really takes me back!” She walked down towards the couches, breathing in the air. “And this place isn’t even that bad! There’s doors!” She nodded. “Are the rooms any good?” 

“You should check out room 6,” Ted jerked his head at the end of the hall. “Window is smashed in. We didn’t do it.” 

“I can’t find a room with a heater and a closet,” Charlotte added, a bit crestfallen. 

“Mix and match!” Emma seemed familiar with the conundrum. “It’s charming, really homely.” She dropped her backpack down on the couch, looking at all the beer bottles on the table with a more skeptic look. 

Paul swooped in to comfort her, taking her hand before she could panic or get skittish. 

“Wanna join the party?” Ted picked up a bottle, proffering it to her. 

She took a seat with Paul, ignoring his offer for now. 

Paul broke into his bag, glad he would fall asleep with a full stomach.

“So Paul sent me a photo of the schedule earlier,” she began as everyone sat down around her, leaning in to listen.

She was like some sort of Disney princess who the woodland creatures had come crawling to. 

“And if none of you come do improv with me you’re all dead to me,” she declared. 

Paul winced, quickly averting his gaze from her by ducking his head back to her neck to kiss. 

“You’re avoiding my eyes all of a sudden, Matthews,” she chuckled. 

“We’ll have that talk later,” he just shook her head, wrapping his arms around her and and lifting her into his lap. 

“Ooh!” She awed at his display before leaning towards Bill. “He’s already been drinking, hasn’t he?” 

Bill nodded. 

“Hmmm,” she gave him a questioning look, like he had to be prepared to earn her approval. “Drunk Paul, a confident romantic.” She then shrugged, “Well I love an ego boost.”

“If your ego was any bigger you’d need your own dorm room,” Ted snarked. 

“Shut it, Ted. I can tell with one look at this place that the walls are practically tissue paper. You’re gonna have to deal with me all weekend,” she glared. 

Ted raised one eyebrow as if it was the first time he had considered this. Paul savoured the look of horror that spread across his face ever so slowly. 

“I brought a surprise for you guys,” she put down the second Mcdonald’s bag on the table. “Figured that sort of canteen food won’t be for everyone, but you know what is?” She clapped her hands on the table twice, “McDonald’s chips.”

It was truly a donation to Block C that rivalled Ted’s free drinks. 

With their second dinner out of the way, and all the booze gone, everyone retired to their dorms for the night. 

Paul and Emma helped each other change the bed with the new sheets Emma had brought and Paul was finally relaxed enough to tuck himself under the sheets.

Emma threw herself down on the bed besides him with a hearty laugh. “This is absolutely my element, babe.” 

“Yeah?” He leaned over to kiss her. “I’m just happy you’re here now. Maybe it won’t be so bad after all.” 

“Yeah. Still Ted’s fault you had to come anyways,” she raised her voice because she knew he would be able to hear her through the walls. “What did he say to you again?” 

Paul grimaced uncomfortably. “He tried to argue with me about my favourite movie.”

“Ah, and you like your movies don’t you babe?” She ran her fingers through his hair briefly and he took to doing the same with her. “I brought your favourite for you. Figured that might cheer you up.”

He looked into her eyes for only a second and couldn’t resist kissing her. 

Something in her lip balm made her taste like peaches and he didn’t want to pull back. 

She pushed him away after a second, crawling out of bed. “Nope, your breath smells like whiskey. That’s not really hot. You stay here and sober up, I’m going to go have a shower.” 

“Is that safe?” He asked. 

“Oh what?” She rolled her eyes, putting on a voice to mock him. “Do I need help in there?”

“I was talking about the hygiene. I think we’ve all been too scared to check it out.” 

She gave an approving nod. “Oh. With the state this place is in there’s no way it’s 100% sanitary. But there’s also a 100% chance I’ve seen worse.” She fathered her towel and her pyjamas and she was off. 

Paul’s evening only got better from there and as he lay down on the clean sheets and couldn’t help but play over the end of his night in his head. 

The way Ted’s face had twisted when he realised Emma really was here for good. And with every quip or perfectly timed compliment his expression grew worse until he had completely withdraw from the conversation.   
His friends like Emma better than they liked Ted, he thought. And Ted was going to have to face that this weekend. 

His frenemy was going to get completely obliterated by his lovely, beautiful, perfect girlfriend this weekend, and then they would both laugh about it, and it was going to make this whole thing worth it. 

He ran through the list of activities in his head and excitement buzzed through him.   
In every single one, Emma would beat him. It didn’t matter how much of a ‘team work’ camp this was, and the utter lack of competition in most of the activities, he couldn’t wait for Ted to lose at Emma’s hands.

Rock climbing, orienteering and hiking Emma had in the bag. Her height wouldn’t stop her in basketball either, she could duck and dodge and swerve like it was second nature. He didn’t know what the mud swing was, but Emma would still probably beat Ted at it.

He couldn’t hold back a grin and a laugh.   
This weekend was going to be perfect.   
And then, at the end of the weekend, he would play his favourite movie in the common area and force Ted to face that the original was better than the sequel. 

“Hey!” There was a knocking at the door and Ted forced his way in.   
He was shocked for a second that Paul’s room had clean sheets, and Paul took that small victory as well. 

“What are you doing in here?” He sat up in bed, brushing his hair out of his eyes. 

“You need to be quiet in here, okay? The walls are thin and I’m right next door!” 

“Why don’t you go move into room 4 if we’re that loud?” 

“Because, Paul, there was a bat in there!” 

“Did you ever read Heart of Darkness at Hatchetfield high?” He asked instead.

“What?” 

He didn’t want to admit that after his conversation with Melissa he had remembered another quote that seemed to fit the situation perfectly. He had to play it off cooler than that. “You can go sleep in the bat room or next to us. Is it not something to have at least a choice of nightmares?” He didn’t think that was quite the quote, but he was snatching up any chance to show off in front of Ted this evening. 

“Is that the one book about Africa?” Emma asked as she pushed past Ted, clutching her bath robe shut across her chest.

“Oh, did you ever read it in your last year?” 

“Oh hell no. Twelfth Night. We got to act it out and everything. You know the girl who runs box at the Starlight though? We used to sit next to each other in spare hours, she had to read it for literature or something. I hated it for her. What book did you read Ted?” She asked, sharpening his tone to insist it was time to leave, 

“Wuthering Heights actually,” he informed her, tilting away from Emma. “Can you not get dressed somewhere else?” 

“Hey. Get your head out of the fucking gutter man. I am dressed, I just don’t want to get shower water on the new sheets, and even if I wasn’t, this is my room!” She stuck one leg up on the bed, her tone changing again. “Paul, I shaved my legs, feel them.” 

Paul put a hand on Emma’s calve with a nod and a smile, more pleased at the way she was shutting Ted down so easily. It might’ve been the alcohol or the excitement blurring his thoughts, but he wasn’t actually clear on why Emma was presenting her leg to him. 

“Ugh!” Ted snapped, shaking his head. “No, I can’t do this. Can you two maybe put the romantic shit on hold for two days? We all hate this trip, don’t make it worse!” 

Emma turned around to face him, hands on her hips. “Ted, why do you have to be such an asshole? Your arguing was what got Paul sent here in the first place and it was way too much for him! Let him have a silver lining to your mistake, don’t be so selfish!” 

He cocked his head, stepping forward to show off his height compared to her in what was almost a threat. 

He was amazed when she didn’t back down, under any other circumstances such a tall man with vodka on his breath coming anywhere near her would’ve had her running for cover, but she had chosen to fight for him. 

He rubbed his face to control how fast his heart was beating for her. 

“You’re just saying that because you two can’t go a second without rubbing your good time in everyone else’s faces! I can hear you two laughing and kissing from my room, and you were putting on such a show when she got here!” He tried to step past her to point a finger at Paul but Emma blocked him. 

“Get it out of your system,” she prodded his chest to get him to take a step back. Her cheeks were red with anger. “Drink some fucking milk, man. I’m just kissing my boyfriend. Can you not sleep through two minutes of that? Are you that big of a jerk? You don’t have to make things harder on Paul.” 

“I bet you can’t go an hour without making a show of yourselves!” Ted spat, but that word triggered something in the both of them, and the mood lightened almost instantly. They both backed a reasonable distance away from each other, mischievous grins on their faces.

“A bet?” Emma rubbed her hands together. 

“A bet,” Ted confirmed with a rough chuckle. “I bet you can’t go all weekend without cuddling up to your boyfriend. No kissing, no hand holding, no pet names, no hugging.” 

“I bet you can’t go a weekend without being an asshole,” Emma put her deal up on the table. 

“Bet,” they both said, shaking hands. 

Paul sat up, shifting to the other end of the bed to try and get a better look at the action. He couldn’t believe it. 

“Let’s lay the ground rules. Am I still allowed to be an asshole?” Emma asked. 

“Yes. Am I allowed to be an asshole to someone if they deserve it?”

“Well deliberate on it if it happens. Am I allowed to sleep next to Paul?” 

“Yes. But nothing cosy. Scouts fucking honour you don’t start something just because I can’t hear it.”

When Emma nodded his heart dropped into his stomach and shattered. He couldn’t even hold his girlfriend?

“Is Paul still allowed to be romantic?” 

Ted craned his neck past Emma. “Paul, you want in on the bet?” 

“No thanks. No, no I’m fine.” 

“Then yes. But it’s kind of weird he would be if you don’t reciprocate.”

“Any other questions?” Emma asked Ted. 

They both shook their heads. 

“It’s a bet.” They shook hands again before high fiving for no real reason, and then Ted went back to his room like nothing had happened.

Paul waited with his jaw dropped for an explanation as to why she would agree. 

She tossed her bath robe down on her bag, combing out her hair with her fingers and fixing her pyjama sleeves. “What’s the look for, Paul?” 

“Em, I thought we were...” he trailed off, a bit deflated. It wasn’t like ‘camp rumbug’ was the most romantic place in the world. 

She retrieved her phone from the bedside table and laid down on her own side of the bed, a noticeable distance between herself and him. 

He rolled over to her to fill that gap. 

“Paul,” she glanced at him. 

“Hey, it was my decision and I’m not part of the bet!” He liked that loophole at least, he wrapped his arms around Emma and kissed her cheek. 

No. Things could still be fine.   
A bet was the ultimate way for Emma to beat Ted. And just like everything else his wonderful little woman would do this weekend, she was going to beat him.


	2. Mischief and miscommunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emma thinks Paul is okay with the bet.  
> Paul thinks Emma is ignoring him.   
> Ted thinks he’ll win the bet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM SORRY IDK WHY THIS IS SO LONG DJSNF

She wasn’t sure whether it was the fire of the competition or the fact she couldn’t have him, but Emma had no trouble clicking off any romantic desire in her. It was like a light switch. She was going to swoop up an easy win, and have the best weekend of her life.

Ted was trying to mask his grimace at the breakfast table as he watched Emma for any signs of a slip up but what he didn’t know about her was just how badly she wanted to win.

She was leaning back in her chair, rocking it on its back legs as she looked at Paul across the canteen where he was fetching his breakfast plate. She was grinning, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. 

“What’re you staring at, Emma?” Ted asked, measuring out his tone politely.

Charlotte and Bill weren’t informed of the bet, but it was everyone’s business with walls that thin, and they knew every rule. They were reasonably invested, watching Ted and Emma closely for any deviancy. 

“Paul’s stupid, fucking ass.” 

Ted pointed a blaming finger. “That’s romantic!”

“What was romantic about it? Did I compliment him?” 

“No, but your smile says what your words can’t,” he was smiling like he had caught her out but she was quick on her feet.

“I’m smiling for a different reason. That man’s a clown and I’m making fun of him. Look, he can’t find the cereal bar.”

“That’s not romantic at all is it?” Charlotte had to double check. “That doesn’t break the rules then, Ted. Sorry.” 

“And I wouldn’t push it any further if I were you, then you might be the one breaking the rules,” she shot him the same, flashy grin. 

As Paul returned to the table Emma stuck out her tongue at him. “Couldn’t find the cereal bar?” She teased.

He gave an uncomfortable laugh. “There’s a lot going on over there,” he tried to explain, tapping his fingers together and offering a shy smile. 

“There’s not even twenty people in this room, Paul. How much could possibly be going on?” Emma swallowed a mouthful of her own cereal as it to tease him that she in fact could find it.

Before he could answer, his phone began to ring. “Oh, hold on,” Paul grabbed his phone. “It’s Melissa!” He smiled, keeping his volume down as to not disturb the two other tables at breakfast. 

“Put her on speaker!” Charlotte requested, leaning into Paul. 

“Good morning, Mel,” he greeted her, putting his phone down in the middle of the table. Everyone leaned forward to listen to her. 

“Morning, Gatsby!” She greeted him. “Any happy campers?” 

“Morning, Old sport. Things aren’t happy but they’re interesting,” Paul admitted. 

“Do you want to say good morning to my cat?” Melissa asked. 

“Put her on!” Paul nodded, but was unheard under Charlotte’s louder gasp of ‘yes please!’

“Hi Charlotte! Am I on speaker?” Melissa asked, raising her voice. 

“Yep,” everyone on the table answered. 

There was a faint ringing of a bell. “Well say good morning to my little baby!” There was a meow somewhere on the other end of the line. 

“Good morning!” Charlotte and Paul had put out cheerfully, the other three a bit more hesitant. 

“Okay, and with that out of the way, good morning everyone else, my treasured colleagues and Emma! Oh, how I have learnt my lesson and vow to get along with my co workers. Mr Davidson’s lectures are so valuable to me.” 

There was a second of silence where the table could hear Melissa going about her morning tasks - brushing her hair and getting dressed.

“That was a joke. I hate them. Screw you, Ted. I’m off to sit in Mr. Davidson’s office for two hours today to learn about good behaviour! I wasn’t even part of your argument! I was just nearby! But Paul was in the right, the original was better.” 

“Well I’m so sorry I offended you Melissa. It must suck to be pulled into those lectures, I’m sure you already know the right behaviour.” 

Paul could almost hear Melissa’s jaw drop. 

Emma was more interested in the way Ted still evaded the part about the movie. 

“What’s going on with him?” 

“Emma and Ted are-“

“Oi, shut it for a second,” Emma batted her hand across the table to quiet Paul. “Ted’s just really learnt his lesson since coming here.”   
She shook her head at everyone on the table in a way that warned them to keep their mouths shut about the bet. 

Melissa let out a low, questioning hum. “Charlotte? Can I talk to Charlotte or Bill? What on earth is going on?” 

“Friendly competition,” Charlotte started. She didn’t want to spoil anything and left it at that. 

“Oh you guys love a friendly competition! Ted and I like to make bets on things in the office, like who’s going to call in sick on Mr. Davidson’s big presentation days. Ted’s never lost a bet. Ever,” she admitted.

Ted shot a triumphant look at but kept his mouth closed. 

“Well, keep me updated Paul! It’s boring at work without you guys!” 

“I’m going to be too busy with camp Rumbug’s great ‘bonding and trust exercise activities.’ You’ll have to wait for a report,” Paul had to tell her. 

There was a fumble of fabric on the other end and a front door clicking shut. “I wonder if I get in a fist fight with Dirk from accounting whether Mr. Davidson will send me up to join you?” 

“Melissa, don’t do that,” Paul shook his head, he wouldn’t put it past her. “Stay at work. I’ll ring you back later.”   
He hung up. 

“So,” Emma rubbed her hands together. “What activities are we picking? Anyone wanna throw their hat in the ring?” 

“Hiking sounds nice and easy,” Bill was still uncertain, it wasn’t like there were many hills out in Hatchetfield. 

“Perfect! Yes, let’s do that! We should do rock climbing too, that’ll be fun!” 

“Canoeing?” Paul suggested. 

“Stupid idea Paul, Charlotte doesn’t like the water.”

“Sorry man,” Ted gave him a pat on the shoulder to sympathise with him. “She’s really into it.” 

Charlotte gave Paul a sad little glance before turning back to Emma. “I don’t like the water, I couldn’t go canoeing,” she shook her head bashfully. “Maybe we could try the team building exercises? They can’t be hard can they?” 

Someone, presumably one of the workers had found her way up the podium on the other side of the empty call to give an overly cheerful good morning announcement. 

“Good morning!” Ted said back, sharing a joking glance with Paul. 

She went over the day’s schedule of activities, reminding each table they were required to do three a day, and then gave a generic ‘let’s all get along!’ Pep talk. 

The tables in the hall gave half-hearted cheers to see her off the stage. 

“We’ll go sign up for the team building exercises then, get them over with right?” Bill suggested. “How hard can they be?”

It was what Paul was dreading least anyways, and Emma shot a look out of the corner of her eyes just to ensure he wasn’t panicked over it.

They had half an hour to get ready after breakfast before they had to meet up with an instructor. 

Paul needed an extra hour of rest, and had retreated to his room to cope with the stress of the camp. And while everyone else had gone to put on a change of clothes Emma slipped out into the common room to call Hidgens.

“Hey, Hidgens,” she relaxed as she heard his voice. 

“Good morning, you’re up early!” 

“Ah, 8:30 is a sleep in for me. I’m really not minding this whole camp business at all, it’s really pretty up here. We’re going hiking today,” she made sure to keep her voice down, she didn’t need anyone listening in on her call.

“Oh you’ll love that I’m sure, dear. How’s Paul? Is he handling it okay?” 

She lowered her voice even farther. “He’s fine, he’s okay.” 

“You sound like something’s wrong, Emma,” he said. 

“Oh, nothing’s wrong, Paul and I are-“ she paused with a surprised yelp and clapped her phone to her chest. “Ted! I didn’t hear you coming, you scared me!” 

“Oh, sorry Emma! Talking with the old man?” He asked, sitting down on the couch across from her. 

She nodded, slowly raising her phone back to her ear. “Sorry, Hidgens. What were you saying?” 

“Paul, how is he?” He repeated. “Are you two fighting? You sounded a bit upset when I mentioned him.” 

“Oh, no I wasn’t upset at him, it’s just...” she looked up at Ted.

He wasn’t watching her, but he was clearly listening in. 

“We aren’t fighting. Things are-“ she didn’t choose ‘great.’ That was far too strong of a word. “Fine. I’ve got to go.” 

“I’m skeptical, Emma,” he wasn’t convinced. “Call me back tonight. I’ll come pick you up if you need to come home. Okay?” 

“Okay, thanks Hidgens. I’ll call you back later.” She kept an eye on Ted, who in turn was trying to hide a very sly smile. 

“Shall we head down?” Bill emerged from his room in one of his trade-mark dad outfits, and Charlotte from hers, wearing, for the first time since Emma had met her, a t-shirt.

“Em, can you go get Paul?” Bill asked. 

She hesitated to ensure she was following the rules of the bet.   
“Paul, get up, time to go.”

“Can you step in and close the door for a second?” He asked, a bit downhearted. 

Emma sat at the foot of the bed, crossing her legs. “What’s up?” 

“I really don’t like this camp, Em. I know you do, but I don’t,” he rubbed his shoulder anxiously, avoiding looking into her eyes. 

“Well only two days, Paul. You’ll be fine won’t you?” She tilted her head.

He shrugged. “I only thought I could get through this because you’d be here, but this whole bet this is really... just because you aren’t allowed to be romantic doesn’t mean you have to be mean to me.”

“I’m not being mean!” She put a hand to her chest. “We’re just having fun, right Paul? Just a bit of fun!” 

He looked away, swinging his head as far as he could from her direction to examine the floorboards in the corner of the room. “It’s not very fun for me.”

“Well come on. We’ve got to be down the hill in about five minutes for the activity so get dressed. You’ll warm up to it. Promise.” Usually she would pat him on the shoulder but she didn’t even touch him. 

“No, you are being mean Em! There are lots of different ways to treat someone, just because we can’t be romantic doesn’t mean we can’t still act like friends,” he tried to tell her but her expression wasn’t changing. 

“I want to win this bet, Paul. I thought you wanted me to win it too!”

“I do!” 

“Well I’m just going to be like this this weekend. You know how tricky Ted is. If I even so much as look at you he’ll make it romantic!”

“And so what if you lose the bet Em? There’s no prizes! I need you here, Emma. I’m going to freak out without you. The last thing I need is you of all people making fun of me!” He needed her to understand. It was dire to his survival that he could hear Emma’s words of comfort this weekend. “You’re taking things too far.” 

She looked hurt for a second, and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Just get out here Paul. We’re ready to leave.”   
She turned around, leaving him in the darkness of their room. 

When he did decide to eventually skulk out they were all waiting by the door, and Emma wouldn’t make eye contact with him, not until they reached the bottom of the hill where the activity was being held.

The instructor passed around a clipboard for everyone - including one of the other groups staying at the camp- to sign off on. 

When the board got to Emma she shook her head. “I’m not actually with the company,” she explained, not intending to elaborate on the fact she was only here to pick and choose her activities.

The instructor raised an eyebrow but kept that company-policy smile. “You aren’t?” 

“Think of me more like a chaperone.” 

“Oh!” The instructor laughed, putting a hand to her head. “I thought you were with our high school orientation group!” 

Emma’s face flushed a deep shade of red. “No, I’m thirty,” she choked, embarrassed to be called out like that in front of strangers. “I’m just here for,” She bobbed her head Paul’s way. 

Paul crossed his arms and glared. She wasn’t here for him at all. 

“Sorry dear. Anyone signed up has to partake in all the activities,” the instructor explained much to her dismay before splitting everyone into one of two groups.

They were doing some sort of activity called ‘minefield.’ Group A pairs up with someone in group B and shouts orders at their blindfolded group B partner to guide them through an obstacle course.

Only briefly upset at having to compete in some poorly-run team building sport, Emma cackled to herself. Ted was bound to lose his temper.

“Ted, will you be my partner?” She walked right past Paul, batting her eyelashes at him even though she knew he couldn’t reject her.

“Sure,” he gritted his teeth. “Of course Emma,” he forced a cheery smile.

The instructor handed out the blindfolds to each member of group B and as much as Ted was on a good streak she didn’t trust him to tie anything to her.   
Before she tied the blindfold to her eyes she managed to catch a glimpse of Paul, he was in her group too. 

His face was red and his eyes watery. He was rocking back and forth on his feet and tapping his fingers together. 

They weren’t done arguing of course, but she couldn’t bite back her worry for him.   
His ideal activity probably didn’t consist of being blindfolded and shouted at. 

“Now you have to trust your partners, group B. They’ll guide you through the obstacle course and you have to listen carefully! If you miss a cue you’ll crash into an obstacle,” the instructor gesture to the course behind them. 

The obstacles were just posts and low benches scattered about a dusty track, nothing that anyone could trip into, but maybe stumble over if they were getting too cocky. 

Mischief brewed in Emma’s little head. For once, her height was going to come in handy. As if she was going to listen to anything Ted said, she was going to hit each and every one of them. It might mess up her shins but it was a low, low price to pay. 

“You’re a good listener, aren’t you Emma?” 

Emma was, she prided herself on it in fact. But she shrugged in reply to Ted. “You know your left from right, right?” 

“I do.” His smile was rigid, offended Emma would even imply otherwise. 

“Alright campers!” Came that cheery supervisor voice. “Lead your partners to their starting spots and then head up to your own up there! Anyone who takes off their blindfolds gets disqualified from the race.” 

Emma grabbed onto Ted’s wrist just a little too tight to see if it would get a reaction out of him. 

“Just listen to me, okay?” 

Emma nodded, preparing to lose. 

She listened out to the other sounds on the course, the shuffling of fabric as people adjusted their blindfolds, the footsteps on the gravel, a bird cooing somewhere in the trees above. But then she heard something much more familiar to her, somewhere very close by was a whimper from Paul. 

And Emma couldn’t unfocus herself from that noise until an air horn blared out, and then people started shouting orders. 

Emma began to walk, not run. She was keeping pace with where she could pinpoint Paul to his anxious mumbles. 

“Turn left!” Ted called out to her. 

Emma turned right, pegging her knee into a post. “Oops! Sorry Ted!” She called back, waiting until she could hear Paul move past the obstacle on his course in when she darted around her own obstacle.

“Emma turn- no! Go the other way. You’re going to have to step over it!”

“Can I step over it?” She shouted back. 

“Huh?”

“You’re tall, Ted. Is this an obstacle I can step over or am I better off crawling under?” She asked, putting her hands on her hips. 

“Ugh- uh! Just go under then! Duck down!” He wasn’t about to start a fight with her. 

Taking her sweet time, she got down to her knees, feeling about for whatever she was ducking under. “Oh, it’s okay! I can step over it!” It was low enough, so she stood back up to step over. 

She wished she could see his face, but she was sure Bill or Charlotte or whoever was unblindfolded would be keeping an eye on him for breaking the rules. 

“Hey Em, politely, can you pick up the pace? Come on, you can do it!” It was like being an asshole was so strongly entwined with the threads of his being he didn’t even know how to act normally. 

“I’m blind, asshole!” She shouted back. “You give this a shot maybe!” But over her yelling, she lost track of where Paul was. And that made her pick up her pace for sure. 

“Sorry!” He called back. “Move right!” She listened closer for his voice now, picking it out from all the other shouts cried out across the field. She was concentrating harder on his voice than she usually did on a test. 

And then she could hear Paul again, his breathing ragged and upset as he listened to whoever was instructing him. 

“Left! No, further!” His guide - Bill, she was fairly sure- called out, but to no use. 

The next sound she heard was Paul’s breath leaving his lungs as he tripped over an obstacle and stumbled to get his footing before falling. 

And then the most pained and frustrated yelp of defeat, a whimper that said he no longer wanted to participate, that he needed to go back to his room and hide for the rest of the day. 

But no. Emma wasn’t going to allow that.   
She ripped off her blindfold, stuffing it into her pocket and flinching back as the light beamed at her eyes. 

“Emma!? What’re you doing!?” Ted almost lost his temper.

“Row three disqualified!” The instructor called out, still smiling. 

Emma didn’t care. She legged it back up to the group A podium so fast that Ted shielded his face, expecting a punch. “What did I do!?” He asked, thinking her anger was directed at him. 

“Shove it, Ted. I’m not talking to you.” She spun around to face Bill, who was doing a sloppy job of guiding Paul. “Bill, no offence but you suck at this!”

Bill gave her a wide eyed look. “Huh?” 

She couldn’t break into a rant about how angry she was that he let Paul get hurt with Ted standing over her shoulder but nothing was stopping her from getting him out of the way and taking the podium herself. 

“Paul?” She called out to him where he had frozen in the field. 

He turned around to face the podiums despite the fact he couldn’t see. 

“Yeah, it’s me, I’m going to guide you okay?” 

He nodded, turning around again. He still looked uneasy, but he obeyed when she gave him directions. 

“A little further to your left!” She shouted. “You’re nearly at the end now!” 

Bill resigned himself from giving orders, and Ted just stood back, appalled.   
“This doesn’t count, by the way,” Emma snapped at him. “This isn’t being romantic with Paul, this is more an attack at Bill’s shitty orders more than anything.” 

In the end, every other team crossed the finish line before Paul, but when the activity was dismissed and he took of his blindfold and she could see the look in his eyes things were different. 

“Wow, that was exciting!” Charlotte grinned. She was paired up with a member of the other team, and had developed a better bond with her temporary teammate than any of her other coworkers during her stay. “Should we head black up for rock climbing?” 

Bill nodded, still a bit stunned at Emma’s usurpation. 

“I wasn’t an asshole,” Ted tried to vow. “Bill heard everything and he’s judged me innocent. Yelling is part of the game.” 

“It’s okay. You’re off the hook. For now.” Emma crossed her arms, falling into step with Paul at the very back of the line. 

“Hey.” She swung her arms by her side. “Good game?” 

“Yeah. It was alright.”

Their hands brushed ever so slightly and against each other and it sent chills down Emma’s spine. She wanted to kiss him right then and there and apologise for being so unreasonable. 

“Thanks for taking over. Bill’s a slow thinker sometimes.” 

“It’s okay.” They looked each other in the eye and shared an unspoken apology.  
“I’m not allowed to get too emotional, so just pretend I’m saying exactly what you want to hear.”

“I know that you know what I want to hear,” Paul bumped his shoulder against hers. “Thank you, Emma. I know this weird bet means a lot to you.” 

“You’re walking me right into a pick up line that I can’t say.” 

Paul smiled, but he wished she could say it. He needed just a bit of confirmation that everything was still okay. 

He snatched up her hand. He was allowed to take it, he hadn’t agreed to any bet. 

Her fingers didn’t curl around his but she didn’t take it back. 

Rock climbing was better.   
It was a setup back at the top of the hill over a tanbark layout. The harnesses were the sort of ‘do it yourself’ ones where everyone had to step through half a dozen different loops and tie themselves up to three different ropes.

The harness almost looked natural on Emma, she had gotten it on while Bill was still trying to find out what way it went.

There was a buddy system obviously, that was exactly what they expected from the camp and it was only their second activity.

“Emma, I want to be with you,” he told her. “Will you be my partner?” 

Emma grinned, surprised. Paul was allowed to show affection, and she was allowed to receive it. She was a bit let down she couldn’t manipulate Ted into partnering up with her again so she could try and break him. 

“Sure, if you need me so badly,” she told him, but flinched when she realised how rudely it came out. “I’ll make sure you don’t hit your head,” she settled on saying, connecting their harnesses to the pulley system 

The rock climbing walls were the sort of play ground type with colourful dips and protrusions sticking out to climb on. 

Paul watched Emma take the wall in thoughtfully, and he knew he would win with her on his side. 

“Now remember!” Their new instructor told them. “The first group to the top wins. Both you and your partner need to reach the top of the wall, this is not a competition, it is a team building exercise!”

Emma snorted. “Oh this is a competition,” she told Ted, who was the unlucky odd number and had been partnered with one of the campers from Block A. “Sorry, I’d play fair but I really do want to win.” She gave him a mocking apologetic look as she latched her hands onto the wall. 

“How’re we gonna do this?” Paul asked, trying to find a spot for his fingers. 

“Paul, you’re not going to do anything,” she told him. “Leave it to me. I don’t want you messing it up.” Once again, far too offensive, but there was no polite way to say she would handle it and he didn’t have to worry. 

She stretched out her legs behind her before getting into a good stance. 

“Go!” Another annoying blare from an air horn that made Paul’s head hurt. 

Before he even knew what was happening his feet were off the ground.

Emma was strong enough to carry both of their weights when she had launched herself onto the wall, and she was moving too fast for him to gather his thoughts.

“Woah, babe,” he managed to splutter our when Emma had to pause. “You’re good.”

She didn’t acknowledge his words, her fingers dug into the grips on the wall and her eyes set on a grip a little further up. 

“You’re strong,” he told her. “Its really impressive that you’re this good, especially considering your height.” He decided it was fine for today to mention her height considering she had no immediate plans to be nice to him anyways. 

Paul was holding onto the grips with all his might, risking a glance back down to see where the other teams were. He didn’t know he was already so high up. 

“I’m gonna jump, so I need you to let go of the grips, man.” 

“Are you sure you can make it?” He held on tighter. 

“Without a doubt. I’d tell you a nice story about Guatemala but I think that’d break the rules somehow.” 

“It’s not like Ted can hear us all the way up here.” Ted was still on the ground. He wanted to hear a nice little story from her, it would help him settle his fear, but Emma wasn’t talking.

“Scouts honour or something man. You’ll just have to trust me, okay?” And then she made the jump. 

“Holy fuck!” Paul cursed. Clinging to the first grip he could and not even daring to move. 

“We’re good!” Emma assured him, but when he looked up she only had one hand in the grip, and neither of her feet were in the divots either, just pressed against the wall. 

“I don’t know if we are!” 

Emma swung up her other hand into a hold. “We’re good,” she repeated, firmer. “Promise.” 

“We’re nearly at the top,” he was breathless. “You scaled that thing like a god damn spider monkey, Em!”

“I know, people tell me that,” she shot him her signature grin.

On any other day he’d love to see her rock climb. It was legendary, she could probably break records if she tried. He could picture how strong her muscles must be, but this wasn’t the time to start dreaming, he was scared out of his mind.

“Don’t make that face, man,” she snorted. “We aren’t that high up!” And with one last burst of energy they were at the top. 

“We win!” She called out to everyone else, dragging Paul up onto the platform.   
Her fingers curled around his wrists, not even touching his hands. That hurt just a little bit. 

“Huh?” Someone from Block A looked up at her with bewilderment. “That chick’s fucking feral,” he shook his head to his teammate. 

“I think we might have a new record,” the supervisor chuckled somewhat anxiously. “You two must work together really well!” 

Emma just nodded. She didn’t take the credit. “Paul, this might scare you but we’re going to have to jump down.”

“We’re going to have to what!?” 

“Do you trust me?” She rolled her eyes, amused by the look on his face.

And he nodded, hoping she would feed him back some sort of ‘I trust you too,’ but still nothing from her. 

Without any hesitation whatsoever she pulled them both back from the top of the platform.   
She was more willing to admit her trust in the pulley system than him as it lowered them both to the ground. 

Emma had to scoop Paul up into her arms when his legs were too shaky to stand, but she got him back onto his own feet after a second, brushing her hands of the deed. “You’re fine.” 

“Well that’s the fastest we’ve finished that job,” the instructor clapped her hands. “You can go ahead to the next activity if you want or get an hour in before lunch time and take your third activity afterwards.” 

Emma recognised the customer service smile. This girl was excited she didn’t have to stick around for the full lesson. 

“Is that allowed? Did she cheat?” The other man from Block A asked. 

“Well I see why you’ve been sent up here,” she scoffed to them in passing. 

Paul loved his little lady. She always had a come back ready, he took up her hand in his to follow along like a lost, baby puppy. 

But he only had a second alone with her before his coworkers came to swarm Emma.

“Wow! That was incredible, Emma,” Bill smiled.

“Aww, thank you Bill!” Emma beamed back at him.

“You must be a super human!” Charlotte chimed in. 

Emma put a hand on her shoulder. “You were doing pretty great back there, Char.”

“I’m glad you got us out of there so quickly. The guys from Block A are...” he paused to rephrase his sentence, “very unpleasant.”

“I hope we can see the people from Block B again! They were much nicer at that game this morning!” Charlotte clasped both her hands together. 

“Yeah, you did great Emma!” But there was no words of praise or shoulder touches for him. 

He tried to push through the herd around her but couldn’t get into her circle. 

“Emma?” He tried to get her attention but she was set on trying to get Ted to say something mean again, attempting to have him call the Block A people ‘assholes.’

He sighed, falling back to walk by himself this time, his hands deep in his pockets.

It was the same ‘I don’t have time to talk’ cold shoulder all the way through lunch and Paul couldn’t stand it. 

She sat on the other side of the table to him so he couldn’t even hold her hand or breathe in her coffee scent. 

He needed Emma, and she wasn’t giving herself to him, and for some reason that made him mad.  
It wasn’t a consensual decision, she wasn’t mad at him, she was just obsessed with this stupid bet!   
And now he was mad. He wasn’t part of this bet, so there was nothing stopping him from being an asshole like Ted.   
“Emma, can you make me a coffee?” He asked.

It wasn’t textbook aggressive, but he had promised her she never had to make a coffee of the clock.   
It was petty and small and she probably didn’t even notice, but it was his way of baring his teeth. 

It still managed to hurt though when she got up without an issue to make coffee. “Anyone else?” She asked so it couldn’t be mistaken for affection. 

It was just another chance to parade her skills around, he thought, still mad at her. But another part of him ached. Did she not remember the promise he made to her? Did he really not mean enough to her? He shook his head, it was just the bet. It was just the bet. It was just the bet.

She walked with Charlotte back to the dorms trying to hype everyone up for the post lunch hike, and they all listened to her, even Ted. 

Paul had to hold back his jealousy and inner rage as he dragged his feet to the hike. He was dreading it, everything was back to normal now, there was nothing at this camp to be happy about. 

He hated the joy in her voice when she didn’t even know how much she was hurting him. 

Their hiking guide passed around the clipboard to sign off their names, and Emma was too busy telling one of her Guatemala stories to notice when Paul asked to use the bathroom. 

He promised the instructor he’d catch up with them in five minutes, but made no plans to come back. It went off without a hitch, Emma didn’t notice, the instructor didn’t notice, neither did any of his friends. 

When he got back to his bedroom he only wanted to talk to Melissa. He preferred text, but she really wanted to FaceTime him, and he begrudgingly agreed, keeping the camera off his face.

“Look!” She didn’t even say hello. “I know I got the whole productivity lecture today but then I found this website that sells cat clothes!?” She gagged. “Incredible! Paul, which ones should I buy?” She flipped the camera around to show him her screen.

He laughed, picked out an outfit, and didn’t explain his troubles to her. He just needed a bit of normality and a distraction and she provided it all so well.

He ended the call around the hour mark, he was supposed to be heading over to the hall for dinner but he didn’t have an appetite. 

He dragged himself from bed to rummage through Emma’s backpack, pulling out his favourite movie.

That was something that always made him happy at least. When it went into the video player and the familiar intro music began to play he felt his skin tingle happily and for the first ten minutes he could pretend he was actually happy. 

He was supposed to watch this as his victory movie when Emma had won the bet and he was happy but he didn’t care. He needed something, anything to make him smile even just a little. 

He knew the movie like it was his favourite song. Each and every word was in his head and he was so busy giving his own one-man performance that he didn’t hear the door open. 

“Paul?” It was Emma’s voice. “What’re you doing here? It’s dinner time.” 

“I’m not hungry,” he stared at the floor. 

“You watching your movie in here buddy?” She could tell something was wrong and came to perch on the armrest of his chair. 

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “Go get dinner for yourself. You must be hungry after all that work you did today.” 

“Oh, Paul! Is this about today?” She pouted, shimmying off the armrest and sitting cautiously on his lap, eyeing the front door once. “I’m a bit of a cheat when it comes to you, Paul.” She gave his forehead a quick kiss and he wanted to pretend that made it all okay but it didn’t.

“You can’t just seduce me into forgiving you!” He snapped. 

Emma took that as a sign to get off him immediately, and he wished he hadn’t opened his mouth.

“Sorry,” she apologised, her face red and her eyes avoiding him. She rubbed her arm, biting her lip. 

“Sorry,” he sighed back, letting an awkward silence fill the room. Their conversations were never like this. “You hurt my feelings by ignoring me all day.”

She was quiet to listen to him.

“I thought after that blindfold thing today we were going good but then after rock climbing you stopped talking to me and it hurt my feelings because I want you to tell me it’s all okay.” He began to rub his fingers on the material of his shirt near his collar. “And I hate this camp so I really needed you to be here for me but you aren’t! You’re just making it worst, Emma! If I knew you were going to do this I wouldn’t have invited you at all!” He spat, shaking his head so she couldn’t see the tears brewing in the corner of his eyes. 

“Paul, baby,” her face paled with shock and she looked like she wanted to hug or touch him but she had learnt her lesson the first time. “I’m sorry. I had no clue, I thought you were cool with me doing the bet. It’s only one more day, and-“

“You won’t call it off?” He interrupted. “You’re actually going to keep it up? What else can I say to you? How much does this bet mean to you, Emma? Tell me.”

Emma held a hand protectively over her heart and she wasn’t sure whether to back up or step in. He could see how uncomfortable the shouting was making her and her feet shifted to face the door like she was going to run.   
“Paul. I’m sorry. I really am. But I can’t just call off the bet.”

“Then I will. I’m going to tell Ted what you just did!”

Emma slid in front of him to block him leaving the common area. “Please don’t.” There was some feral desperation in her eyes. “I need to win this, Paul.” 

“What?” He knew she was involved, but not that involved. 

“I need something to hold over Ted’s head, man! He’s such an asshole, I just need something to shut him up when he tears into me like that!” He could feel how raw her voice was. She was serious. 

“He’s got the better job and he’s got all the cool friends and he gets paid more and he went to university, he can drive a car and he can visit his parents for the holidays if he really wanted to and he can do anything I can’t!” 

Paul knew they argued, but not like that. He was speechless. 

“I need to win this bet, I can’t risk losing it. I can’t give him something else to rub in! Please Paul! Don’t tell him,” she held her palms to his chest to keep him from walking ahead but it was a great addition to her persuasion. 

“So you aren’t- you don’t- this has nothing to do with me?” 

She shook her head, her eyes still wide, round, and locked with his. “Please don’t tell.” 

Paul inhaled, trying to settle his racing heart. 

“I’m sorry I made you this mad. I can make it up to you the second I win this bet, Paul. I swear.” She was searching his eyes for whether he was about to yell or apologise. 

“I didn’t know it meant that much to you,” he admitted. 

“Well it does, and I swear it’s nothing personal with us. I mean it’s us! This is just a bet but I’m still Emma and you’re still Paul and everything is going to be normal in 24 hours, I promise!” 

He wished he could kiss her, but he had made his decision. “Emma,” he cleared his throat. “I’ve got something to say.” 

She shied back, watching him carefully for any hints of violence of aggression.

“I’m going to help you win this bet,” he tried not to let his voice waver, he knew what he was admitting himself to. 

“Really!?” Her mouth hung open and she immediately looked lighter on her feet, rising to the tips of her toes with an almost-grin. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, hoping he looked confident and cool. “You be mean to be and I’ll be mean to you. We’ll stage a fake fight even if you want! And in the mean time, I’m going to bother the shit out of Ted. Because as per usual, it’s his fault!” Maybe this was the right decision. Emma’s smile was back and she was smiling for him.   
“Yeah, we’ll see Ted try to get romance out of that!” It wasn’t his mic drop speech but Emma’s grin was worth it. “Starting tomorrow though, because I still want some time with you tonight,” he added, taking her hands and giving her a chaste kiss.

“Bold,” she blushed with a laugh. “You’re just going to take what you want huh? Maybe I’m into that.” 

“Oh, no,” he shook his head quickly. “I understand the terms of the bet, I know you can’t show me any affection so I do want your permission now to know if I can still kiss you and hug you and hold your hand.”

“Paul, I’m nearly begging for that,” she elbowed him. “I’m touch starved!” 

He wrapped her in a big hug to hear her giggle. “Better?”

“Better!” 

But the second the footsteps walked up to the door they flung themselves from each other.   
Paul fumbled for the remote to turn the movie off.

“Em! You never came back!” Ted called out as he entered. “You two aren’t back here getting some, are you?”

“Ew, no,” Emma shook her head. “Here?Yuck.” She stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. “I’m following the rules of the bet.” 

“Yeah, with her? Here?” Paul copied her, making a face like he was going to be sick. 

Charlotte and Bill exchanged surprise looks and Ted raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. 

They all settled in around the living room and Paul took a small victory by seating himself so close to Emma their knees brushed. He put his arms around her too, and Ted couldn’t tell him off for it. But it was making him twitch.

“There was such a pretty view from the top of the hill!” Bill started the conversation. “You could see Hatchetfield from there.”

“Yeah, you could see the Lakeside mall, and the community college, and the radio station!” Charlotte added like it was the most interesting thing to ever happen.

“I saw the starlight too!” Bill put in.

Ted didn’t say anything. He was watching Emma for any rule breaking. 

“Ah, I should tell you guys about Guatemala! There’s this hill I climbed, 2015 maybe? It takes you up to the top of this dormant volcano, super cool!”

Paul let her voice smooth over the worries of his day. He leant in to kiss her neck, getting in two or three before Ted gasped and pointed at them. 

“That’s breaking the rules!” He growled, standing up and preparing for some sort of victory dance. 

“No it isn’t?” Emma glared him back down into his seat. “Am I touching him?”

Ted couldn’t even get out a defeated ‘no’ before Emma could cut him off. 

“Am I kissing him? Did I ask him to?” 

Ted crossed his arms and sighed. “No, Emma.” 

“Exactly!” Paul huffed.

“Yeah, exactly!” She smirked, opening her mouth to continue her story, but not before sparing him a look of pleasure. “Paul, as you were.”


	3. The turnout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are both convinced they’ll win the bet, but only one of them does

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s finaLLY done oh my god thank you all for reading this took way much more time than I thought it would but I had fun and I hope you all did too!

“Dumbass still can’t find the cereal bar,” Emma rested her head in her hands, watching Paul search about the breakfast buffet. 

Charlotte took a small bite of her apple, pushing it back and forth between her hands. “Is everything alright with you two?”

Emma nodded. “Well I’m sure you know the trouble of having a dumbass partner,” she told Charlotte. 

Charlotte pursed her lips shut and began to mind her own business. 

Bill looked uncomfortable with the tension too, and looked away, shifting in his chair to talk to Charlotte instead.  
The two of them obviously had their own shares of relationship issue but Paul and Emma never seemed to. None they would share with their coworkers at least. 

“Things not going well for you two?” Ted asked. 

“Not your business,” Emma shrugged, still watching Paul across the canteen. She relished the twinge of annoyance in his face when he realised this bet was going to get harder. 

“To your left, dummy!” Emma called out to him, throwing up her middle finger when he turned around at the sound of her voice. 

His face remained deadpan as he returned the gesture with both his hands.

Charlotte and Bill shared a knowing look, it was a set up. 

Ted was squinting, looking back and forth between Emma and Paul as he came to the table. 

“Somethings up here,” Ted growled.

“Oh, everything okay here babe?” Paul asked, his hands brushing over Emma’s shoulder as he walked to his seat. 

Ted’s jaw dropped, and he looked back and forth between the two of them, looking for an answer. “Are you two fighting or not?” 

Emma shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. So what activities do we want to do today?”

“Well there aren’t many good ones on today unfortunately. I checked the schedule this morning,” Charlotte rested her head in her hands, rather flat this morning. “I believe it was um, improvisation, basketball, the caterpillar and the mud swing.”

“Mud swing,” Bill shook his head. “I’m not doing the mud swing. I didn’t bring clothes to get dirty.” 

“Well, I don’t know about doing improv,” Paul shook his head. “It’s stupid.”

“Hey, fuck you Paul,” Emma shot him a glare. 

“Right back at you, babe.” Their glances brushed and they both had to turn away from each other so they wouldn’t laugh.

Emma chuckled. This was going to be such an easy win, and Ted was already cracking. 

“Hey, there’s now way they’re talking to each other like this for real,” Ted scoffed, looking to Bill and Charlotte for support. “This is a full 180! They don’t treat each other like that!” He held out both of his hands to the two people in mention. 

The jury shrugged their shoulders. “What do you mean?” Bill asked.

“They’ve gone and choreographed something behind our backs, they’re just acting like this to spite me!”

“Does that go against the bet?” Charlotte questioned, not quite caught up on what Ted was talking about. 

“They aren’t breaking the rules now, but they’ve planned something! They must have!” Ted tried to warn them. 

“Oofh, you’re getting a bit asshole-y with all these accusations, Teddy boy,” Emma clicked her tongue. 

Her ring tone went off and Emma paused. “Hey, I’ll meet you guys back at the room, Hidgens is calling and I better take it. He’s been getting worried.” She pushed her plate back and took her phone, saying good morning to him as she left the hall. 

Ted wasn’t stupid. He knew shady when he saw it. But he had a plan of his own, and he was quite confident it would work, and Emma’s behaviour just now was only solidifying that idea in his head. He was certain by the end of the day he will have won, all he had to do was think before he spoke.

The morning ran according to Ted’s plan after that. They went off to a tower building contest, and Emma was just about as competitive as he assumed her to be. She even kicked Paul’s tower down at one point. 

And Ted was fine with that. He was sure this was all some sort of rehearsed ruse and the more they were into it the better.  
He was so relaxed at this point he was finding it hard to be an asshole without putting conscious effort into it, everything was going smoothly, and his confidence in his plan increased yet again when Emma called over the instructor to blame the innocent Paul for stealing her team’s tape. 

“So what activities next?” Bill herded up the group into the common area as they returned from breakfast. The next two activities on were Basketball and Improv, and there was a clear conflict of interest.

“Basketball can’t be too bad,” Paul suggested. 

“Huh?” Emma shook her head. “But they’re doing improv this morning. You know I really wanted to go to that.” 

“Yeah, but you how I feel about all that acting stuff babe,” he lowered his voice, looking out the window instead of at Emma.

“Paul, Paul Hey,” she crossed the common area over to him, keeping her volume down but casting a subtle look back to make sure everyone was watching. “You know I was looking forward to this.” 

“And you know how much I hate this camp! Don’t drag me along to some sort of shitty acting thing, please?” He put his hands on her shoulders. 

Charlotte and Bill had scattered to the sides of the common area, looking away from the couple to give them some sort of dignity, but Ted couldn’t take his eyes away. 

This was awful. At first they were all sure this was a joke, but Paul was a terrible actor! And he was selling this way to convincingly. 

“Paul, I just wanna go do the improv man, it’s easy, you’ll like it! And you know I can’t play basketball! My leg is still too fucked to run and I’m too short!” Her cheeks flushed red like she was embarrassed about it. 

“Well maybe come play basketball and you’ll grow a few inches? God, what do you want me to say?” His face was red too, and he was gesticulating as he spoke.

“Paul!” She batted his chest and he huffed. “I’m thirty, I’m not growing anymore. Just come do this stupid improv thing with us okay? There’s a different between me physically not being able to play basketball and you just not liking improv.”

“Don’t be dramatic! You can play basketball, Em! There are five of us, and if we go and play your little improv thing someone’s going to get paired with a stranger and it’ll totally be me. Can’t you think about how this makes me feel?”

“I’ll team up with you, Paul! Promise!” She pleaded. 

“No you won’t! Because you’re too fixated on winning this bet. And there isn’t even a prize! Why do you want to win so badly? Is it something to do with me?” 

“No! I swear, god, why is it always about you? You won’t let me have any fun on this camp, did you only invite me out here to complain!?” She stamped her foot. “Look. I don’t care. We’re going to improv, okay?” 

“Nope,” he pushed her out of his way. “We’re all going to basketball. Come on, Bill, Charlotte.” He stormed out of the dorm block and his friends followed behind him like mice, keeping a wide berth from the angry man. 

“Are you okay?” Bill asked.

“You two aren’t really fighting are you? Ooh, that was so bad! Maybe you should apologise?” 

Paul chuckled, wearing a warm and bright smile. He turned around to face his friends, an excited skip in his step. “That was all staged.”

“Oh!” Charlotte let out a gasp of relief. “It was so convincing! I was so worried! Is this all for the bet?” 

“I figured I’d give Emma a hand. She gave me a few acting tips last night, but I do hate improv, so it wasn’t too hard to lie.”

———————————————————

“What’re you still doing here?” Emma didn’t turn to face Ted, and shielded her eye with her hand. 

“Are you crying?” He wasn’t sure whether to take their fight seriously or not. 

“I’m not-“ she dragged her hands across her eyes. “Go play basketball with your friends, man!” She pointed at the door. “Show’s over!”

“Are you alright?” He took a few cautious steps towards her, trying to distinguish whether or not she was actually serious. 

“Ted, you’re about to lose this bet so fucking hard. I asked you to leave me alone, so can you go? You’re being a dick.” 

Ted scuffed his shoe on the floor, grunting. “If you want to go to improv so badly I’ll go with you.” 

Something dawned on Emma and she looked up at him with her wet eyes. “Are you just saying that because it’s part of the bet? Or do you really wanna come?”

He nodded and shrugged, holding out an arm for her to link with. “For real. I’ll take you to improv, I was gonna go anyways. I’m not about to hang out with the peanut gallery anyways.” 

Emma beamed, rubbing her eyes dry so she could link arms with Ted. “Thank you, really. We don’t usually fight like that,” she confessed. “But it was bound to happen, Paul was tense and I’m a jerk and there’s no personal space at this dumb camp is there?” She sniffled.

She was right about that actually. Maybe it was a real fight, it wasn’t like they could hide it with walls so thin. 

“Well we’re all going back home tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe I wasted my free weekend here of all places,” she hung her head. “I can’t wait to get back home to see Hidgens.” 

The improv was being held in what looked like a makeshift Greek theatre made from damp logs with moss and ants ever plenty. 

Only four other people had shown up, basketball was most definitely the more popular choice. 

“Hey everyone! Come and take a seat!” The instructor was twice as cheery, imbued with that theatre kid chaos. 

Emma sat down on the logs without thinking twice, her mood improved at once upon hearing the way the instructor spoke.

Ted on the other hand, did not sit down. He took to leaning against a wooden column, not as keen to invite himself into the ant kingdom as Emma had been. 

“I’m happy you all came along, this is definitely the coolest activity we’ve got here, just don’t tell the other supervisors, especially not Lacey from basketball.” 

“Yeah, imagine liking sports,” one of the other campers snickered, getting a laugh out of everyone else except Ted. 

“So we’re going to start off with some fun little improv situations, so how about you guys get into groups of 3 and we’ll get started!” 

Ted and Emma leaned over to watch the group of four from Block A to see which friend would be cast off their little island to join them.

Emma was pleased to see the Block A people, she knew Ted didn’t like them. 

“Hey,” the man who had been voted out came over, his eyes on the ground. 

“Hi!” Emma held out her hand to shake his. He was going to be her partner in crime. Ted was going to snap soon, she could feel it. “I’m Emma, and this is Ted.” 

“I’m Matt,” he introduced himself, he wasn’t pleased to meet them. He was about Zoey’s age, and looked like he would rather die than be here.

“So what‘re you in for?” Ted asked.

“We’ve been sent up here for a whole ass week because Scott was being a bitch.”

Emma nodded and rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Where do you work?” 

“Starbucks. You?”

“CCRP, we’re from Hatchetfield,” Ted tossed his head in the general direction of the island. 

Matthew gave a slight smirk at that. This kid was just terrible, and that was great for Emma. 

“Oh, I’m a Barista though,” she told Matt. “I’m here for the kicks, honestly.” She played back just about every conversation with Zoey in her head to find the sort of slang people her age used. 

“You’re strong for a coffee chick. Weren’t you the person who obliterated the climbing wall yesterday?”

“I wear that badge with pride. I want my name engraved on a trophy in the front office,” she was confident she had built up a strong enough rapport with the younger boy for now. “It was actually my boyfriend who got this lot sent up here, Ted on the other hand, is the nicest person you’ll ever meet,” she held her hands out to him like she was presenting him to the boy. “I mean, you could probably punch him and he wouldn’t complain.”

“Oh my god,” Ted groaned. “Don’t start telling people that.” He shook his head. “Don’t listen to her, I would probably complain if you punched me.” 

The supervisor cleared their throat to stop the chatter before continuing. “So, you have five minutes to discuss who’ll play who. Person A and B are best friends, they’re travelling on a busy bus and when the bus stops, person C is going to get on.” 

Matthew already seemed to have grabbed the role of person C, he wanted to be as far from Emma and Ted as possible. 

“And person C is going to bump into person A, and then you can take it from there. Maybe you can shout, or maybe you can become friends, it’s up to you.”

“I’m being person A,” Emma gave Ted a small shove to ensure he heard her, this was just too good. 

“I’m only here because I don’t want to hang out with Scott and he’s doing basketball,” Matthew grumbled. “I don’t act.”

Emma bit down on her lip. “Well acting isn’t that bad, you know in 2003 I was in a production of B-“

“I don’t care, man. I’m here to get these activities checked off so I can go back home. I’m just a high school kid, I’m missing out on classes at school. I have a Biology test coming up I have to get back to.” He crossed his arms.

“Biology?” Emma wasn’t done trying to be his friend. She needed his help to have her plan work. “I’m a Biology student too! I go to this pretty cool community college, do you need help with anything?”

He looked tired of her speaking. “I’m not a dumb student. I’m going to a STEM university next year to study biology. I don’t need your help.” 

“Alright kid, listen up okay? You are that high and mighty, you’re clearly the one in your little group of dickheads that no one likes, that’s why you got kicked out to be with us. Got it? Enough with the attitude.”

“Someone had to say it,” Ted grinned. He was relieved Emma had taken charge of shaping the kid up considering he couldn’t without breaking the rules.

Matthew grimaced, looking over at his friends laughing on the other side of the open theatre. “Well you aren’t so great yourself, Miss community college. Just because your an adult doesn’t mean I owe you respect.” 

“Well you should at least try and get along with us! We aren’t trying to start a war here!” 

“Okay boomer.” 

Emma fell silent, unable to make the words come out of her mouth. 

“Woah, hey, let’s not start talking to each other like that,” Ted had to intervene. “How old do you think she is?” 

“It’s better than people thinking I’m thirteen I suppose,” she dug her hands into her pocket, pissed someone was ruining her fun. 

“Hey, is Hatchetfield haunted?” He suddenly changed topics. 

“What?” Emma and Ted said in unison. 

“Haunted?” Ted repeated. “You think it’s a ghost town?”

“We just get told to stay away from it,” he shrugged. “Where’d you get that scar from?” 

Emma shifted her stance so her bad leg was behind her good one. “Well not from a ghost, if that’s what you’re so interested in.” 

“Oh. That’s sort of lame then. Is it like, a town for mythical creatures? Is that why you can climb so fast? Are you like a werewolf or some shit?” He was joking for the most part. 

“Fine, that’s fine.” Ted’s cheery façade broke, his smile cracking. “Let’s not start world war 3 here.” Ted ran a hand over his face to cool himself. 

“Starting to think maybe Scott isn’t the bitch in this situation,” she huffed at Matthew before turning back to Ted.

“I know what you’re planning here Emma, and I’m not going to yell at the kid if it isn’t scripted. I’m quite confident I’ll win this bet.” 

Emma laughed at him. “Yeah, because me and Paul are totally buddy buddy right now. What if neither of us win?” 

“Oh. One of us is definitely losing,” Ted assured her. He had a plan, and he was quite confident in it. 

“Alright! Are you ready to get up? Who wants to go first?”

The Block A gang went first.  
They managed to pull off a fun little story where person B left person A to start some sort of forbidden romance with person C. None of them really cared to put effort into their characters or the plot, and Emma even deemed it a little bit homophobic, but from what she learnt from Matthew she wasn’t really surprised. 

When it was their turn, they got to the stage and Matthew lurked in the shadows of the wings.  
Ted surprised Emma by going that further step, raising his hand to pretend he was holding onto the standing passenger handle, she smiled up at him, holding onto his raised arm since she was far too short to reach where he had envisioned them to be. Improv wasn’t really a competition but she still wanted to beat out the other team in one way or another. 

“How much longer till our stop?” She asked, pretending to sway with the moving bus. 

“Well it’s hard to tell, this bus is so busy, we’ve been stopping at every stop.” 

Emma didn’t like his exposition, but she rolled along with it. “I hate public transport, it’s always late.” 

The instructor clapped their hands to signal the bus stopping and Matthew, as person C, got on board.  
There was no acting or space work, he just walked right up to Emma and with what was definitely mal intent in his eyes, shoved her.  
And he didn’t hold back either, she stumbled back and she would have fallen if Ted didn’t grab her. 

“Hey, sir!” He tried not to growl, because this certainly wasn’t acting for him anymore. He had actually pushed Emma with the intent to hurt her. “Get a seat up the back, we’re standing here,” he dropped his imaginary handle, helping Emma find her footing. 

“Sorry. I’m in a rush. I’m on my way to a Biology class at my STEM university,” he sneered.

“Well this is a bus, we’re all going at the same pace,” Ted shook his head. “You don’t need to push.”

That managed to get a laugh from his friends, which only worsened his mood. 

“Well I think you guys are on the wrong bus. Only ferries take you back to Hatchetfield.” 

Emma had gone silent, and Matthew wasn’t cooperating. Somehow, all the responsibility of the skit had been given to him.  
He had to swallow his pride. If he wanted this to look like anything other than a childish argument that was.  
“Aw man! You totally got us. We’re from Hatchetfield, and we’re actually ghosts.”

Matthew looked like he wasn’t sure whether to make fun or them or raise an eyebrow. 

Ted grabbed Emma’s shoulder, summoning up his rendition of some sort of Dracula cross ghost voice. “No mortal being should be able to see us, come on, take to the night!” And with that, he rushed Emma off stage. 

“Wow, what a creative place to take that!” The instructor spewed out some generic ‘you tried’ nonsense. 

Ted was just angry they didn’t get to show off either of their real acting skills. 

Emma was looking away by the time they sat back down, so he couldn’t judge how she was feeling. 

“I nearly lost it back there,” he admitted, hoping it might improve her mood. “I can’t believe he actually pushed you.”

“Yeah,” Emma placed a hand lightly over her scar. “That kid was an asshole. I was kind of counting on that at first. Thought maybe I could get him to bug you into snapping. But I don’t know, I don’t care really right now. Come on. I don’t really wanna do improv anymore.” She grabbed his wrist, leading him out.

“Oh we’re just leaving? Just like that?” 

“I’ve got to call Hidgens before lunch anyways,” her body language was closed off. That kid had really upset her. 

Maybe that could be a win for him? If she was upset enough she’d apologise to Paul to complain about it to him. But now he felt genuinely guilty for exploiting her distress.

He allowed her to go off on her own to make the phone call, and took to waiting outside the basketball court for his friends to be dismissed.  
Emma told him she would meet up with him when she was done but she never showed. And when Paul came out asking where she was he just shrugged. 

“She’s probably gone back to the room. Are you two ready to talk things over?” 

Paul tensed up, not giving a response. “Let’s just go back to the rooms before the next activity. How’d improv go? Was it stupid like I said it would be? Wow. I bet she feels stupid now, she should’ve listened to me.” 

Ted held out a hand to have him stop. “You shouldn’t make fun of her right now, man.”

“Why, is something wrong?” His tone changed quickly. “Is she hurt?” 

“No. She’s fine I’m pretty sure. But you really cracked it at her this morning man! That was weird!” 

Paul huffed and stuck his chin up. “I’m not doing any stupid improv.” 

Ted wasn’t sure what went down between this morning and now, but Charlotte and Bill were giggling a few steps back at everything Paul said. 

“Look. I don’t know what’s so funny, and I don’t know why you’re being a jerk to her right now. Let’s just go get some lunch, I’m starving.”

But Emma didn’t make an appearance through lunch either. About ten minutes in, Paul started to text her. And about twenty minutes in, he started to call.  
“It went straight to voice mail,” he held out his phone to show everyone at the table. 

“Maybe her phone is just on charge in the room? She can’t tell what time it is without her phone on, there aren’t any clocks in the dorms,” Bill proposed. 

“I’ll go back and get her,” Paul offered. 

“Nope,” Ted put out a hand to stop him getting up. “You two can’t be unsupervised, we don’t know if you’re going to break the rules or not.”

“I’ll go look for her then, I’m finished eating,” Charlotte volunteered, pushing in her chair to leave the hall.

Paul looked uneasy, checking his phone every few seconds. 

Ted wasn’t sure what to think of his plan anymore. He couldn’t tell if Paul was angry with her or just joking, or whether he was truly concerned or not.  
As confident as he was with his betting history, he wished he hadn’t gone up against the trickiest girl he knew. 

“Oh my god, she’s not in the dorms,” Paul exclaimed all of a sudden, tearing Ted from his train of thought.  
He was holding out his phone to the table to show them the text he got from Charlotte. “She’s not there, I’m going to go back and look for her.”

“Hey man, we’ll come too,” Ted told him.

“Look, if you’re just being nice for the bet I don’t need your help!” 

“I may be an asshole but I’m not going to ignore the fact one of our campers has just flat out gone missing.” 

“Missing! Do you think she’s missing? Should I call police?” Paul’s hands started to shake so badly he couldn’t use his phone, and he forked it off to Bill instead. “How long has she been missing for?”

“I don’t think we need to call anyone, Paul,” Bill spoke with some hesitance. “She’ll be around here somewhere. How was she at improv, Ted?”

“She seemed a little mad at one of the Block A guys but it wasn’t anything serious. She said she had to go call Hidgens,” he started the story as they stood up, walking briskly back to the dorms. “Yeah. He was sort of rude but he was a kid. Emma wouldn’t get that upset by a kid would she?” 

“I’ll call Hidgens,” Paul took his phone back, trying his hardest to select his contact with his quivering fingers. 

The dorm room really was empty aside from Charlotte.  
“Have you not heard from her?” She asked Paul. 

“N-no! We were-“ he gulped, rubbing a hand against his throat. “I don’t know. I’ve tried to ring her and-!” He paused, holding the phone to his ear hopefully before letting out a whimper. “Hidgens went to voicemail too.” 

“Well maybe they’re both calling each other then?” Bill pointed out. “Look, chances are she’s just finding a quiet space to make the call. Give her another ten minutes okay?” He gave Paul his personal space, but offered up a smile. “She’s an adult. What could possibly happen to her here?” 

That seemed to get through Paul’s stress barrier. His eyes grew wide with understanding and he nodded his head up and down. “That makes sense.”  
And Paul was as calm as he good be until he made the decision to return to his room. Not even a second after shutting the door he came flying back out.  
“Her bag isn’t there!” 

That roused a deeper worry in his friends. 

“Well hey, that means wherever she is it was a voluntary choice, so it’s okay Paul!” Bill once again tried to offer him some support. 

“She must’ve called Hidgens to come and get her maybe?” Charlotte prompted, and Bill nodded.

Paul gasped, feeling his head start to spin. “No, Emma wouldn’t have done that. She wouldn’t have. She was going to stay here with me!” Even if she was gone by choice she was still gone. And he needed her to get him through this. And why wouldn’t she text him? Was she actually upset at him? Did he take their fake fight too far this morning? 

“Well I’m not surprised,” Ted shook his head and shrugged off Paul’s worries. “You’re probably right. I would go back home if I had the choice if you spoke to me the way you did to her. That was absolutely uncalled for, Paul.” 

“No!” Paul snapped. “It was fake, Ted! The whole thing was fake! I offered to help her because I know this bet means a lot to her! She wouldn’t call Hidgens to come and get her without at least telling me first!” 

“Wait, you guys planned something?” Ted’s temper was coming back to him. “All your little quarrels this morning were something, but you’ve got to be fucking with me. I was worried about her when you went off at her, man! But you two were just making a fool of me? It was all a joke!?” He spat, pointing a blaming finger at Paul.

Paul shook his head, clamping his hands to his ears and trying not to let the noise and stress get to his head. “It’s fun and games, Ted! There’s not even a prize! It’s not like that broke the rules!” 

“Fuck you, man!” Ted gaped. “And this isn’t a joke right now? She’s actually missing?” 

He shook his head so hard it hurt. “Yes! I don’t know where she is!”

“I think you lost the bet, Ted,” Charlotte put in meekly. “That wasn’t very nice to Paul, he’s stressed.” 

“No! Right now the bet is off! If Emma is actually missing I swear to god, come on. Let’s go take another look around camp.” Ted scratched his fingers across his scalp to try and calm back down. Preparing anything wasn’t against the rules of the bet, but it was completely unfair. 

“Charlotte, Bill, can you go ask the Block B people if they’ve seen her? Ted, can you come with me and show me who the man from Block A was to upset her?” 

The group split up, Ted dragging his feet behind Paul to keep his distance.  
There was obnoxious music being pumped from Block A, and no one answered when Paul knocked. 

“They’re ignoring us,” Paul began to shut down, like this roadblock in his plan inhibited his ever seeing Emma ever again. 

“You’re knocking too quietly.” Ted shoved him out of the way, drumming his fist on the door before ending with one swift kick. 

The music inside turned down ever so slightly and there were muffled yet annoyed voices from inside. 

Impatient, Paul knocked again, letting his desperation show through the tempo. 

Eventually, there were creaks from the floorboards and the door swung open. 

“Hey, Matt,” Ted was glad it was someone they were familiar with, no matter how much of a dick he was. 

“Oh! Hey guys!” He called back to his friends inside. “It’s the Hatchetfield ghost! Where’s your werewolf friend?” 

“Yeah, we won’t bother you for long man. Have you seen her around? She hasn’t come to hang out at the ‘cool kid’ house to get some biology lessons off you has she?” 

“She hates the Krebbs cycle,” Paul spluttered, feeding back any facts possible he could as if that would help him remember her. 

“The krebbs cycle?” He laughed to rub it in. “That shits easy. Look, she’s not here.” He tried to close the door and Ted was going to let it happen but Paul bolted up to stick his foot in the door. 

“I wasn’t done speaking to you!” He snapped, thrusting the door back open. 

Matt stepped back. He didn’t look like the kid to respect authority figures, and a grown man about to cry himself wasn’t even a threat to begin with, and yet he let Paul talk. 

“Ted told me about what happened at improv! You think you’re so cool for bullying her and pushing her, but now she’s missing, and any stress or injury that may arise from your actions is your liability!” There was poison dripping from his words.

Matt still didn’t seem to take him seriously, and Ted had to guide him away from the door before he could continue. He didn’t think anyone from Block A would let Paul live it down if he started crying in front of them. 

“That was some legal talk, where’d that come from?” Ted asked to try and take his mind of it. 

”I have a cousin who’s an attorney!” He told him, but only so he wouldn’t waste his time asking again. 

“Any luck?” Bill and Charlotte asked as they met back up with Paul and Ted. 

Paul shook his head, his breath coming out short. He felt so dizzy that he couldn’t feel his legs anymore, and didn’t realise he was fainting until all three of his friends tried to stop him falling.  
“Oh my god,” Paul was absolutely going to cry now. 

“Hey, maybe you should lie down for a moment,” someone told him - he couldn’t differentiate the voices. 

They helped him carry himself back to Block C and let him collapse on the couch in the common room. 

“Oooh, I’m worried sick for the both of the dears,” that was definitely Charlotte, but it took him a moment to process the sound of her voice. 

“Why are you all here!? You have to go look for her, I’m going to try and call her again!”

“Paul, she’s an adult. If she’s got her bag with her she’s probably just gone home with Hidgens,” Ted told him again, but he wasn’t having it.

“I’m telling you, she wouldn’t without texting me! And oh- oh my god she’s ringing me!” His head cleared up so fast as he heard her voice. “Emma! Where are you? Are you okay?” 

“Shouldn’t guys be heading down to your next mandatory activity?” She said, brushing over the worry in his tone. 

“Emma, where are you?” Ted took the phone from Paul, who was still too dizzy to talk. He put her on speaker, and when he did they could all hear the sound of her boots crunching gravel below her feet. 

“I’m fine, is Paul panicking? I’m fine.” 

“I asked you where you were, Emma! Are you deaf?” 

She let out a cheer from the other end of the phone so loud Ted had to move it away from his head. “I won!”

“You didn’t win shit Perkins. We’ve put the bet on hold because you vanished on us! Where are you?” 

“I didn’t vanish!” She defended herself. “I text Charlotte.” 

“You text Charlotte?” Paul jumped off the couch to snatch his phone back. 

The colour ran from Charlotte’s face and she hurried off to her room to grab her phone. “I’m sorry! I didn’t bring it with me to basketball!” She called out as she ran. 

“Yeah. I don’t have your number and I figured you could find a way to twist me texting Paul into something romantic. But I have a surprise for you guys. I’ll be back at the cabin in like ten minutes. Do me a favour and sign off on your next activity, then meet me back at the dorms.”

“Emma, you worried Paul sick.” 

“I’d comfort him but I’m still playing by the rules of the bet, which is back on by the way.”

“What inspired you to run off?” Ted had to ask, switching around his tone so it didn’t sound too offensive. “We thought you must have gone back with Hidgens after the improv incident.”

“Total honesty here, I did need a breather after being around that asshole. Figured I should get off camp grounds because I was just that pissed, the second I saw Paul I would’ve dropped all my walls to complain about him. I mean, he pushed me! What a brat!” 

“Well you scared the shit out of me Em,”  
Paul grumbled, running his fingers across his shirt. “I could barely eat lunch. Not that it was any good anyways. Rice and lentils or something.”

Something he had said seemed to please her. “Well that kid just thought he was so much better than me because he’s going to university. I decided not to let him get to me, because I have too much self respect to let an 18 year old dumbass Starbucks barista be better than me. I just had to prove that to myself, hah. So I got a surprise for all of you.”

Everyone liked the sound of that. 

“Now go sign off on whatever activity it is and sneak back to the dorms or you’ll miss out!” 

As Emma was speaking, Bill had taken the schedule down from the shelf to share with everyone. “Emma’s got perfect timing. I don’t suppose anyone minds missing out on the mud swing?” 

The gang roared with laughter and relief. 

“Oh lovely! I don’t like getting dirty!” 

“I didn’t bring the right clothes for it,” Bill chuckled bashfully. 

“I’m just glad it’s all over, Emma’s safe, and I don’t have to get muddy,” Paul shook his hands, shaky with reassurance. Anything to do with mud was a bit too wild for his indoor self. 

So they trekked down to their pre-dinner activity. From the setup alone, they couldn’t quite infer what the mud swing exactly was, but there was a whole lot of mud and a whole lot of rope. 

They signed off their names, glad to see there were enough Block A and B people that the supervisor didn’t notice when the four of them snuck out. 

Charlotte was giggly, never having broken that sort of rule before.  
Bill tried to remain calm and level headed and tried to hush Charlotte in case she unknowingly alerted the instructor, but when she couldn’t stop laughing, he started. 

Paul was a good student growing up. He never skipped classes either, but Emma’s  
own antics had rubbed off on him over the months and he felt more brave than naughty. And he was glad Ted couldn’t make fun of them for being so obedient to their authority figures their whole lives. 

He liked the way tonight was going now. He shook his hands to cast off the last of the negativity clinging to him.  
The air was warm but the night was cool, the crickets were quiet and the voices of the attending campers were far away. And best of all, soon he would see Emma.  
He didn’t care what surprise she had for him, he just wanted her.  
He felt fifteen years younger, like he was back in school with his friends.  
“Go timberwolves!” He cheered for only himself. 

“Like the sycamore timberwolves?” Ted had to ask. “No way. Hatchetfield Tigers!” 

Charlotte was still laughing. She was having the best night of her life somehow.  
“I was a cheerleader one year!” She admitted. “But it was too much for me!”

“Really? What year? I don’t remember that!” Bill hushed the group so he could get an answer. 

“Sophomore year,” she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. 

Paul guffawed. “I had to talk Melissa out of cheerleading at school. She was doing it out of spite because a girl she liked wouldn’t date her, it was a phase.” 

About three different questions came flying at him at once so his brain refused to process any of them. 

“You two went to high school together?” Bill repeated himself. 

“Yeah! She was a few years down but we were both the weird kids, so we didn’t have many other friends.” He didn’t assume either of the numerous people to bully them were trying to be friends either. 

“And she wanted to cheerlead?” Charlotte had said. 

“Yeah, the girl she had a crush on said she really didn’t like softball and Melissa freaked out to try and get her approval.”

“Well that tracks.” Ted didn’t repeat his question. 

“We were roommates during her last year in high school,” he only told him that because he knew it would surprise them, and he wanted to keep the mood rolling. 

“No way!” 

“Yeah, yes way!” He nodded. “Only for a year. Her cat didn’t like my dog, and she said it wouldn’t work out, so we got different room mates.” 

“Well you learn something new every day,” Ted said, unlocking the Block C door and holding the door open for everyone.  
“I’ve still got some left over booze, let’s finish it off. I don’t wanna haul here around anymore.”

Paul checked his phone for texts from Emma as Ted got the bottles back out. It was dark outside now. 

He needed a bit of a drink after today’s hassle, but he didn’t want to risk getting too clingy like he knew he would. 

“I’m back!” Emma kicked off her boots at the door, whatever was in her bag looked heavy. 

“Emma!” Paul took off as she came in the door but stopped right before he could hug her. “You,” he pointed a stiff finger, quickly changing his tone around. “Make me so angry when you run off like that.” 

“Well I’m my own man, so you’ll have to deal with that sometimes!” 

And they were back to their mock fights. Ted hoped it would still work out in his favour. They looked close to an embrace just then, but if a missing person scandal wasn’t enough to get a reaction out of them, maybe his plan wasn’t as solid as he had hoped. 

“Everyone grab a seat,” she dropped her backpack down on the table. “And behold, the physical proof I’m not as much a loser as that kid from Block A suggests.” She drummed her hands on the table to build suspense. 

“Nah, sorry Em, you are a loser,” Paul jeered, bouncing excitedly where he stood. 

“Sit down, Paul,” she clicked her fingers at the couch and he obeyed without issue. “And that’s rich, coming from Mr IT boy. No offence to Bill and Charlotte.” She unzipped her backpack, dumping several plastic bags onto the table besides the drinks. “Tadah!” 

They gathered around the table like children on Christmas day, pulling open the bags to see what was inside. 

“We’ve had more than enough shitty soup and rice here now, haven’t we? So as thanks for letting me tag along with you on your camp and letting me shove this bet down your throats all day I brought you all some food from the real world. Can’t beat 7/11 prices.” 

She had stuffed about as much into her bag as she could. Big apples, chocolate bars, iced teas, muffins, even carefully packaged hot foods. 

Even after only a day and a half of camp food, this was heaven. 

“You’re too kind, Emma!” Charlotte cooed, and Bill cake to give her a pat on the back before starting on the food himself. 

“You couldn’t have brought something better?” Paul chided through a mouthful of pizza. 

Ted laid back on his couch and sighed. There were seven hours left until midnight, and he doubted Paul and Emma would drop their charades now. He wondered if there was a way to make a romantic connotation from the fact Emma had bought and allowed Paul to eat the food, but that would be grasping at straws.  
“Can you two just kiss?” He had to ask with the slim hope it’d work.

“Oh I’m winning this bet, Ted! Until midnight, I hate Paul’s guts! We’re still fighting about the improv thing!” 

“Oh nah, I told told him it was fake,” Paul cut in. 

“Oh, well great going Paul. Real smart of you,” she groaned. “It’s okay. I’ve got plenty of other, more genuine fights to start with you.” 

“Throw ‘em at me,” Paul played along, he meant it figuratively obviously, but Emma pulled out the pillow she was sitting on and hurled it across the room at him. 

As a reflex, he stuck his hand out to bat the pillow away, sending it straight at Ted.

It took all he had in him to stifle a rant and to hold himself to the ground and resist punching the both of them. 

Emma bit down on her thumbnail, passing it off like she was picking something out of her teeth. She was a bit frustrated. The weekend was almost over. Maybe she should go right ahead and kick him in the shin. 

Paul scooped the pillow back off the floor to throw at Emma but she caught it, pitching it back. 

Charlotte and Bill took the food they wanted and moved out of the line of fire to eat in peace, removing themselves from the drama. 

“I bet you lost basketball,” Emma sneered.

“I won, actually. And even if I lost I probably had a better time than you.” 

Ted wished they would just cut it out now. He knew it was all a rouse, now they were just rubbing it in.  
He had a plan, but that plan backfired on him the second Emma went off the radar for an hour and a half and took her call to Hidgens with her. 

He tried not to look too dreary, a stalemate was better than a loss, so he may as well keep up the smiles for another few hours. 

Emma on the other hand was still certain she could win. Ted was an asshole when he got drunk, and he was eyeing up the vodka like a predator chases its prey. 

“Hey, I’ve just got to call Hidgens to let him know I made it home safely,” she announced to the group, and just like that everything fell back into place for Ted

That was his plan! All he needed was for Hidgens to answer, and he had been doing it so consistently so far! He had really lost hope for a second, assuming Emma had taken that call while she was walking. But there it was! And it was almost too perfect to believe. 

“Put him on speaker so we can all say hi to the professor!” Charlotte, who was chatty when drunk, requested. 

Emma did so, laying her phone down between the food and the drinks. “Hi professor! I thought I’d call before bed. I got home safely and everyone wanted to say hello!”

“Am I on the speaker?” He asked, not quite adjusted to technology terms. “Hello Emma and Paul and your friends!” 

“Hi, Professor,” Ted butted in, way too eagerly.

Emma drew her phone closer to her, her shoulders raising instinctively. He was a bit too excited for this phone call. 

“Hello! Is that Ted speaking? How are you young man? Emma told me you took her to the improvisation activity today! Thank you for doing that with her!”

“Oh, no problem, Professor! I mean, she was so upset, how could I not?” 

“Well you know, he wanted to go to improv too, Hidgens. It wasn’t much,” she took the phone and turned her back to him.

“Hey fuck you Em, I wanna talk to Hidgens too, come back here!” Paul launched the pillow back across the room, accidentally knocking the phone from her hand. 

This was all the chaos Ted needed. His better’s luck was all coming to him now. He couldn’t believe how perfect it would be, he knew how to force someone into a corner. 

“Leave me alone, Paul!” Emma squawked, tossing the pillow back. “I’m on the phone!”

“Emma, is everything okay?” Hidgens asked. 

Those words were music to his ears, they were the exact thing Ted was placing his bet on. 

“Yeah, everything is fine, Hidgens. Paul is just throwing shit at me.”

“I wanna talk to the professor!” He repeated, bouncy with his own excitement. Ted didn’t think he even remembered the deadline of the bet, he was just having a good time. 

“Throwing things at you?”

“Yeah, he’s being totally unfair right now, I’m on the phone Paul!” She had to swat the pillow away as he threw it again. 

“Emma, is everything okay?” His voice was rich with concern. “You’ve been very quiet about Paul lately. I haven’t heard many stories about him, and he’s the reason you went up there!”

Emma’s heart dropped, and she looked over and Ted and Paul as her blood ran cold. She knew where this was going and she couldn’t let it happen.

“Aww, you haven’t been talking about me?” Paul put on a fake frown. 

Emma gave him a look to tell him to cut it out but he didn’t pick up on the signal and got up, swooping over and knocking her down in her chair to try and take the phone. “Paul! Stop!” 

He obeyed fairly quickly, but waited with a grin by her chair like a puppy expecting a treat for following orders. 

“Emma, take me off speaker for a moment please,” the professor ordered. 

Emma whined as she did so, there was no escaping his upcoming interrogation. 

“Emma, I need you to tell me everything is right up there. You were speaking to me for the last hour about how annoyed you were at that man from your improvisation class, why didn’t you tell Paul about him? Are you two fighting?”

“No professor, we aren’t fighting,” she shook her head, catching for only a second a glimpse of the sickest grin on Ted’s stupid face. 

“Are you just saying that because he’s in the room? What was Ted talking about that made you upset before improvisation this morning?”

“It was nothing!”

“Emma, you can tell me.” 

“Well I was arguing with Paul but it was a joke and-“

“Emma!” He spoke so loudly Ted could hear him. “Do you need me to come and pick you up? I could hear you yelling just now, what was he throwing at you?”

“Don’t come here! You don’t need to pick me up!”

That was what made it click for Paul as he stood behind her. He straightened up from where he was leaning over Emma’s arm rest to look at Ted, who was grinning so hard he looked like a vessel was about to burst. 

He didn’t know what to do but grab the phone from Emma’s hand to talk to the professor himself. “Hidgens, Hidgens! Hi, it’s me Paul! I need to tell you-“

“Put Emma back on right this instant, Paul!” He shouted, and Paul did so without hesitation. There was actual rage in his voice, and he went going to mess with that.

He watched Emma talk quicker, cutting Hidgens off whenever she could to convince him everything was fine. Across the common area, Ted was leaning back in his chair with his feet kicked up, the bottle of vodka in his hands ready for a victory drink. 

“Hidgens, I’m fine, Paul isn’t making me say anything, I’m saying this of my own free will, yes, Paul is fine and I’m safe!”

“I bet you could probably convince him with some stronger adjectives there, Perkins,” Ted popped the bottle off the vodka, making a cheers motion. “To overprotective parents!” 

Emma shot daggers at him with her eyes, pressed a hand to her other ear to block out the song Ted was starting to hum. 

“You’re being vague with me Emma and I need you to tell me everything is more than fine, fine is the bare minimum! Usually you have such great things to say about Paul!” Hidgens was getting scary. 

“Listen, I want to say things are better than fine but I can’t and that’s got nothing to do with P-“

“Emma, you have to tell me if Paul is upsetting you, I’ll come up there and get you as soon as I can!” She could hear his car keys jingle. “You just have to tell me what’s going on in more words than ‘it’s fine.’”

“Ugh, Hidgens!” She groused. “I can’t say those things right now but you don’t need to come and get me!”

“If you hang up the phone I’m coming, Emma. Why aren’t you telling me what’s going on?”

“Because,” she winced, Ted’s eyes were set on her, so it wasn’t like she could cheat and tell him it was all a bet. 

“Is he hurting you!?” The Professor suddenly gasped.

“Oh my god, no, Professor please.” Emma stood up, holding out a hand so Paul wouldn’t jump to invading the personal space she needed right now. But that was it. She drew the line there. She wasn’t letting Hidgens think Paul was anything but the perfect man for her. “Paul is not hurting me,” she began slowly, building up courage to admit defeat. “I wish you just would listen to me tonight, Hidgens, because now I’m about to lose a bet.”

Paul wanted to hit Ted so badly.  
Not only had he managed to almost successfully ruin the professor’s image of him with a few leading statements, but simultaneously, he was making Emma lose the bet that she needed to win so bad.  
Admittedly, he did want it to be over so she could hug him and kiss him and hold his hand but a loss for her was a loss for him.

And Ted was just sitting there like he had won the lottery, watching Emma’s lips so he could catch the exact moment she lost the bet like some sort of drama vulture. 

“Yes Hidgens, I’m sorry I worried you so much. Paul isn’t hurting me, I’m not just fine, I’m doing great.” She nodded her head, her tongue felt heavy to speak. “We’re both doing great. I’m having a great time up here, with him. And I’m saying that of my own free will.” 

Ted could only laugh once before downing that vodka.

“It’s a shame you’d ever have to doubt my love for Paul,” Emma sighed into the phone, her shoulders slumped and a frown crossed her face but at the same time, she looked over at Paul with a warmness in her gaze. “I’ve got to go Hidgens. I’ve just lost a bet.” She hung up the phone, tucking it far into her pockets and hanging her head. “Good on you, Ted. You sneaky bastard.” 

“I had it planned the whole time!” He bragged in a sing-song voice. “The second I saw you talking with Hidgens yesterday I knew I had it in the bag, and all I’ve done is watch my brilliant plan come together under your dumb noses.”

“I miss when he wasn’t allowed to be mean,” Emma finally gave in, leaning up once to give Paul a much belated kiss before throwing her arms around Paul and pressing her forehead into his chest to hide away from Ted’s smug grin.

Paul felt so much lighter, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, swaying her back and forth happily with a laugh of his own, leaning down to pepper her forehead with kisses he was allowed to give her and listening to her purr.  
This whole time he had never been a part of the bet, and yet somehow, he still won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking w me through this stupidly too long fic, feedback would be really appreciated!


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